Do Your Job!

Dozens of Americans were senselessly shot in Las Vegas.  A CBS executive said they deserved to die because, as country music fans, they must be Republicans.  Meanwhile the President of the United States got into a public brawl with the mayor of San Juan about hurricane aid to her island.  As for football players, many continue to take a knee while the national anthem plays.

 Nonetheless, we have much to learn from football.  Few would disagree that Bill Belichick is one of the best coaches in the National Football League.  Year after year, he cobbles his team into a contender, despite an occasional dearth of talent.  He may be despised for his habit of winning, but he keeps doing it.

One of the things Belichick insists upon is that his players do their jobs.  As members of a team, they have assignments to fulfill.  They are role players, who if they perform their duties as designed, contribute to shared victories.  On the other hand, if not all will suffer.

This is true, not just of football, but our entire society.  We are a mass techno-commercial civilization.  As such, we are dependent upon millions of interlocking role players.  People have different jobs they must perform well or there will be no food on our plates or roofs over our heads.

Although a myriad of strangers surround us, we expect them to be as dedicated to their occupations as any linebacker.  While we may not personally know them, we are generally aware of their jobs and hence what is expected of them.  Ergo cab drivers are supposed to drive to the correct destinations, while sales clerks must charge the posted prices.

If this sounds trivial, no modern society could survive without a dependable division of labor.  This is especially crucial if a community is under stress.  When the bonds holding people together begin to rupture—as in contemporary America—it becomes imperative that we do our jobs, and do them well.

Because we cannot be acquainted with over three hundred million strangers, we deal with most in terms of their roles.  To illustrate, when I visit a strange city, I get hungry.  But I may not know anyone there.  So who is going to feed me? 

You know the answer.  I go to a restaurant, where I will immediately be confronted with persons I have never previously met.  How then do I know how to behave?  It’s simple.  Despite a lack of personal knowledge, I know their roles.  I recognize the waiter as a waiter and he me as a customer. 

This is how mass societies operate.  They cannot depend on love to elicit cooperation.  They cannot rely on a legacy of interpersonal knowledge for people to decipher each other’s intentions.  Without a network of widely understood jobs, they would fly apart.

But these jobs must also be done well.  If they are not, battalions of strangers will work at cross-purposes.  This is increasingly problematic once occupations become complicated.   Whining or complaining do not get the job done.  Nor does a sense of entitlement.

To put the matter bluntly, we need to be more professionalized.  Millions of us have to become self-motivated experts.  Whether we are doctors, engineers, nurses, or police officers—and yes, waiters, we need to be skilled in our specialties.  We must, in short, be able, and willing, to perform our jobs.

Our world is too big to be a loving family.  The tensions we are experiencing will not subside when we suddenly discover that we are biologically related.  We are not related.  We may not even be friends.

But we are role players.  As such, we can be competent at our jobs.  Unfortunately, our unprecedented affluence has convinced many people that they deserve whatever the want.  They don’t think in terms of upholding their responsibilities, but of demanding a larger slice of the pie.

How can we keep a society like ours together?  How can we prevent it from fracturing into mutually hostile camps?  One answer is that, as per Belichick, we can do our jobs.  If more of us are devoted to being the best we can be at work and at home, the more assistance we can provide each other in fulfilling our respective dreams.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University