Jesuit On Sloth Or Not To Sloth

Priest puts PM's public service work ethic in the sin bin
Mark Davis Political Correspondent

June 14, 2008
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WHEN the Prime Minister burns the midnight oil and insists that Canberra's public servants follow suit he may be leading the nation into sin, a Jesuit theologian says. Father Andrew Hamilton argues that overwork is morally unjustifiable - "in old fashioned Catholic terms it may be a sin" - and that Kevin Rudd has a special responsibility not to encourage such behaviour.

In an article in the online Jesuit magazine Eureka Street, Father Hamilton says Catholic moralists were traditionally more perturbed by the dangers of sloth than excessive work.

With the advent of the industrial revolution their concerns shifted to the exploitation of workers in factories and mines. Now a new ethical problem has emerged: the white-collar worker spending too many hours in front of a computer. "What makes overwork morally unjustifiable is that the time and attention we give to it is disproportionate,"

Father Hamilton says. "If the way in which we work does not offer us space to nurture the significant relationships in our lives, to explore our other gifts, to contribute to our communities and to reflect on the meaning and direction of our lives, we are likely to be overworking."

Father Hamilton, who teaches at the United Faculty of Theology in Melbourne, says the culture of many workplaces encourages employees to idealise overwork. "So those who encourage an environment that makes overwork seem normal and demand that their employees fit into it carry a heavier moral responsibility," he says. "Overwork is particularly dangerous in the public service because public servants must consider the human dignity of those affected by the regulations they frame. "They cannot reliably do this if they or their masters regard as expendable respect for their own dignity. If overwork is a sin, Mr Rudd has no business promoting it."

Link (here)