During the 1980s, with the possibility of unemployment hanging over our heads, many companies put increasing demands on their staff. We went through a phase when it seemed that you were either unemployed with no work or employed but expected to do the work of two people.
The fairer economic climate of the 1990s has hardly diminished this intense pressure for working men and women. Along with the pressure, the old security of having a 'job for life' seems to have evaporated. Changing markets and continual innovations in technology mean that companies are ever having to change their staff, and employees are needing to retrain. Not surprisingly some ask: 'Isn't there a better way of earning a living?'
'Downshifting' is the label given to making a decision to try to get out of this rat-race and go for a different kind of life. Looking for another way of earning a living which will give a person more time for themselves and things that matter to them. Mostly, of course, that includes opting for less money but more time. Downshifting is not a Christian book, but it claims to be the ultimate handbook to tell you everything you need to know about swapping a high pressure lifestyle for a simpler and more rewarding way of life - an idea which may have been running through the minds of Christian people.
An increasing yearning
The backbone of the book comes from the author's interviews with men and women, single and married, who have made the radical decision to downshift.
Many people are brought to a decision to try to change work patterns, because of concerns that as a couple they are both working so hard to pay the mortgage and maintain a high standard of living that they are not seeing their children. One GP is quoted as saying: 'There seems no point in having children if you never see them. I know a lot of contemporaries who are GPs who go out at 7.00, are back at 7.00, and if they have young children they are in bed, so they don't see them from one week's end to the next. It seems pointless.' For other people, that decision has been brought on by a breaking point in their jobs. One policeman spoke of just being ground down by society. The crunch came when: 'We picked up a prostitute. She was wearing only a basque under her anorak and was in a really sorry state - sores on her legs, broken teeth and a black eye. But the thing that really got me was she was seven months pregnant.'
The statistics presented about attitudes to work tell their own story. British people have the longest average working week in the European Union. 16% work more than 48 hours a week. The white collar Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union surveyed 14,000 workers and found 60% were suffering from stress. In 400 workplaces surveyed, workers said performance-related pay, increased workloads and 'vicious' management techniques added to the stress.
In June The Times published the results of a study based on the views of 5,500 managers. Nearly half said they found it increasingly hard to meet both their personal and work commitments because of the pressure to perform at work. Penny de Valk, manager of the consultancy group, WFD, who carried out the study said she had been surprised at the intensity of feeling reflected in the responses to the survey. 'This obviously pushed a button with many people', she said.
In 1994, an American Gallup poll found that a third of all Americans - an unprecedentedly high figure - would take a 20% cut in income if they or their spouses could work fewer hours.
Frayed society
Andy Bull makes the point that with the immense priority given to work in our culture, there has been a price to pay in the fraying of the fabric of society. Perhaps the most obvious area would be that increase in divorce can be related to couples seeing less of each other through the demands of time made by the job and by commuting to the job. Middle-class Surrey, with its consumer commuters, also happens to be the biggest divorce black-spot of Europe.
Parents at Work, a pressure group that campaigns to make companies more family-friendly, stated in November 1995: '72% of working mothers report always being exhausted at the end of the day, one in five say their marriages are at risk, three out of five mothers say they don't see enough of their children. Workplace pressures often mean that mothers rush home from work to spend some time with their children - only to work late into the evening when the children are asleep.'
High demands at work have also left the middle-classes with less time to do the things they traditionally did which were so essential to holding community life together. Middle-class people were traditionally the mainstay of district and parish councils. They sat as the magistrates and school governors and have run the Guide and Cub packs in the past. Today there is often a shortage of volunteers to get involved with these things. That may not be due to a decline in a sense of wanting to help the community, but simply because of the ever-increasing demands of work.
Church losing out?
The church suffers similarly. Very often, the most able men and women in the congregation are people, understandably, with high-flying jobs. These people, who in years gone by would have been ideal additions to the diaconate or the PCC, are now unavailable. They are either having to fly off around the world to a meeting in Hong Kong, or are just so tired because they have given their all at the office or workplace that it would be unfair even to ask them to join the church leadership team. It is not just society but the church too which is robbed of talent. And when we think that whatever talents we have, be they academic, business or craft skills, are given to us by God, it hardly seems right that God's church has to suffer.
Perhaps with the motives of helping out in church or community, the idea of downshifting might commend itself to Christian people.
Being practical
The kind of solutions which some people have taken to get out of the rat-race are interesting. One banker and his wife took on a hotel in the Isle of Harris, which means they have to work hard for five months of the year but can then spend the other months pursuing other interests in a more leisurely way. One man gave up full-time work running an old people's home and now works much less for a local authority's alarm-monitoring service for old people. Two couples are mentioned who job-share between them, one couple GPs and the other in the legal profession.
The book aims to be extremely practical. There are tough decisions to be faced if downshifting is to be tried and the author makes his readers face them. Certainly you might have to be able to cope with being poorer. Some people downshift and it turns into a disaster. It is right to be cautious.
Here are some issues he raises. What paid work do you want to do? Do you want to start your own business? Can you reduce your mortgage? If you have enjoyed expensive holidays, will you be able to give them up? How will a downshift affect your children?
The author is also down-to-earth enough to warn us that such a decision may not be welcomed immediately by others, especially among colleagues at work. You may need to be ready to be portrayed by your peers as someone who is burnt out, who is jumping before they are pushed, or who couldn't take the heat so had to get out of the kitchen. Other macho comments can be imagined. You have to be ready to handle such things.
Downshifter personality
You also need to have the right kind of personality to handle such a radical change of life. The successful downshifters tend to be self-reliant, optimistic, full of energy, keener to conserve than to consume, have a good sense of humour, not reliant on the approval of others to feel good about themselves, honest, reliable, willing to try again if they fail, prepared to make sacrifices, highly organised, creative and hard-working. I am not sure many of us would qualify for all those. But on the other hand, the Christian has an advantage. If such a change of lifestyle is of the Lord, then you have his strength and wisdom to guide you.
The book also includes at the end a handy section of names and addresses of interesting organisations related to the idea of changing down a gear or two at work. Perhaps the most interesting is an organisation which has been advising on job-shares, career breaks and related areas since 1977. They are called New Ways to Work and can be contacted at 309 Upper Street, London N1 2TY (0171 226 4026).
Don't get too carried away with this dream of a simpler life. I thought it might make interesting holiday reading for a summer edition of EN. But then again, perhaps it is meant to be taken seriously by some of our readers.
