Servants or Doormats?

[rj_anderson]

It seems to me that for most people nowadays, servant is a dirty word. We tend to think of it as a synonym for slave, associating it with drudgery, dependence, and bondage. Oh, sure, we may have to work for a living, we may have other people telling us what to do, but still we're employees, or contractors, or caregivers - definitely not servants.

Comments

[mrstotten]

This was a very thoughtful and insightful post. I couldn't agree more with the view that people seem to feel now that there are certain professions beneath them. During a discussion in work recently someone was moaning about their job as a person is wont to do on an occassion when the girl nextto us piped up, "it could be worse, you could be cleaning toilets in Asda" now I knwo the message she was trying to get across but was dumbfounded by the way she tried to express it. My grandmother was a cleaner her whole life and she took great pride in her work and a job well done. Even now she takes great measures to keep her house spick and span. It's sad that we have come to a point in society where not only is a job like this classed as menial and shameful, but the idea of someone taking pride in a job like this, taking pride in doing it well is laughable.

Anyways rant over I just wanted to comment on how well you expressed this viewpoint.

Mags

[rj_anderson]

Thank you for your rant! I enjoyed it. Toilet cleaners of the world, unite! Hopefully while armed with gloves and a very long mop. :)

[apis_mellifera]

Except not everyone is good at scrubbing floors. If my skills were to lie in the realm of, say, writing detective novels, shouldn't I continue to write detective novels even though I was accused--and cleared--of murder even if scrubbing floors were a more acceptable sort of job? (Ahem. Couldn't resist.)

I am exceedingly fond of the ideal of the proper job*, I just don't know how achievable it is for a lot of people. Which is a whole other kettle of fish, I expect. Life is complicated! I do not know if I approve of this! *grin*

* And by job I don't mean "work done in exchange for cold hard cash", I just mean whatever it is you do on a day to day basis that has to get done--even stay at home parents have jobs, after all.

[rj_anderson]

LOL, thank you, Harriet.

Agreed that not everybody gets to do the job they want most to do (or even knows what that is!). But I'm not referring specifically to one's paying occupation (or necessary chores) so much as one's overall attitude to life.

Or in other words, you may be scrubbing floors to pay the bills, but coming home at night and writing intelligent detective novels for the pleasure and edification of others (and expressing your own gifts in the process).

What's not so good is if you throw yourself into becoming The Most Celebrated Detective Novelist Ever, neglecting your duties and obligations to others on the grounds that they are Beneath An Artist Of Your Calibre, and trampling over everyone who stands between you and your dreams of fame...

[apis_mellifera]

Oh, yeah. I am agreement with you, it behooves us to try to not be jerks to other people.

I have a tendency to go off on tangents sometimes and I couldn't resist the opportunity presented by your comment. ;)

[tree_and_leaf]

What's not so good is if you throw yourself into becoming The Most Celebrated Detective Novelist Ever, neglecting your duties and obligations to others on the grounds that they are Beneath An Artist Of Your Calibre, and trampling over everyone who stands between you and your dreams of fame.

No indeed; that's being Philip Boyes, rather than being Harriet ;) And if it doesn't lead to you being poisoned by [redacted], then it's more than you deserve....

[dichroic]

But Bunter's is also a Proper Job.

[rj_anderson]

Is it wrong that I kind of love Bunter more than I love Peter at times? Except for the bit in Busman's Holiday where I stop sympathizing with either of them because they're throwing such a fuss about the port. I don't care if she's an interfering old busybody, she was trying to clean the bottles and she meant well and it isn't her fault she doesn't understand the Mysterious Ways of Very Expensive Port, so LAY OFF ALREADY.

[dichroic]

Mother of three falls for a man whose mission in life is to make everything easy and smooth and to remove little daily inconveniences ... why am I not surprised?

[kristin_briana]

The funny thing is that I once worked at a summer camp; my official title was "dishwasher" but I did a little bit of everything, including cleaning the bathrooms and dorm rooms. It's amazing how much better people treat you when you are serving them food rather than cleaning toilets. When I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom or picking gum off the bottom of bunk-beds (yuck), everyone who passed seemed almost embarrassed, or disdainful.

It's a strange phenomenon that cleaning up a summer camp is considered shameful.

[rj_anderson]

Been there, done that, cleaned the toilets. And still counted myself blessed to be on housekeeping and NOT in the kitchen, because even if people looked at me funny when I trudged up the hallway with my bucket and mop, I was done all my work by 2 p.m. The kitchen workers, on the other hand, had to work until at least 7 or 8 p.m. and get up considerably earlier in the morning...