A JOB'S A JOB, RIGHT? "No WAY, are you kidding?!"

I know this is something recent graduates, struggling freelancers and employers may find hard to stomach, or comprehend. But "a job's a job" is not OK. Not for me, anyway: How about you?

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With unemployment hitting 12% across the eurozone, and Spain in particular sitting at close to 50% youth unemployment, the majority of job seekers are prepared to accept anything - ANYTHING - and anyone to earn desperately needed income. On that level, I sincerely understand..

On another level, I think there is no worse mentality: and this is a mentality which bespeaks the terrible turmoil within the European market. (Even if Europe is slowly recovering)..

To my thinking - and I admit I don't have a mortgage, I live at home and have few expenses - accepting any job without making room for personal development is a step backwards. If a job can't "turn your crank", you will eat of course (just about) for the next few months, but you will starve spiritually, socially and culturally. There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than clocking-in and clocking-out to an uninspired series of decoupled and draining tasks.

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THE 'FUTURE' OF WORK(?)

Keynes adumbrated in 'Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren' http://www.econ.yale.edu/smith/econ116a/keynes1.pdf one alternative possible future: there would be little work to do, and consequently our grandchildren (or great-grandchildren, perhaps) would seek healthy substitutes for old-fashioned labour. I could not disagree more.

Labour - or better, creativity - gives meaning to life. As a constant source of physical, financial and intellectual nourishment, together with family and fun, it is close to an isomorph for life itself. So why do we surrender to the 'Dark Satanic Mills'?

Last evening, BBC Business hosted a thought-piece regarding the Productivity Paradox. (Here is a link to Robert Solow's take on the concept as it applies to the information revolution and computer and ecnonomic science: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox). Peter Day focussed upon imminent trade-offs in productivity and robotic automation and the posited distinction between manufacturing industry and services in relation to skilled and unskilled employment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p016tmg8/Global_Business_Productivity_Puzzle/.

Peter Day discovered that the interrelations between manual labour, low-value tasking and advanced tooling and robotic/computer assistance are becoming blurred. A new instance, it seems, of industrial fuzzy logic. By the same process of consolidation, jobs are not so much being eliminated as re-designed for improved efficiency and value-add. Within this developing cycle, businesses are poised to unleash a new wave of productivity with more meaningful and flexible jobs in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?

What I am saying is the quality of your work, and the processes and paths you choose to follow, matter exceedingly to your own wellbeing. By accepting the nearest to hand - in tools, in income opportunity - one may be writing one's value down in a highly collaborative environment which rewards super-smart workers. Just as capital cannot grow without constant feeding and nourishment, our intellectual and eudaimonic capital cannot enlarge without spiritual and intellectual nutrition.

So, don't take the first job to hand....