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IN BOTH CASES, EMPATHY IS NEEDED
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
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"We live in a culture that discourages
empathy. A culture that too often
tells us our principle goal in life is to
be rich, thin, young, famous, safe,
and entertained."
Barack Obama
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With the demise of shorthand, I was asked to teach a course titled, "Introduction to Occupations." This one-year course was designed as an introduction to the world of business ("gesheft" In Yiddish) and work ("arbet"). Topics included the working citizen ("birger"), personal resource management, human relations/decision making and economics of work.
High school students learned that they could expect to change jobs about 8 times during their lifetime, and that an actuary is not someone who deals with birds. They learned how to prepare a resume and a cover letter. They learned that the store "greeter" was part of the security system, and that the fancy word for stealing was "pilferage."
We discussed white and blue-collar jobs, and the difference between a job and a career. We spoke about the job of a salesman ("farykoyfer"), real estate ("grunteygns") broker, and attorney ("advokat". One student shared the fact that his father worked for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a New York City law firm. The class laughed at my mentioning the law firm, "Dewey, Cheetham, & Howe" (Car Talk). We discussed the difference between a "barista" at Starbucks (think Frappucinos, chai this, latte this, and venti this), and a "barrister" (lawyer, chiefly British.)
No, we never discussed the job of "shamash" or hospital ("shpitol") cleaning worker.
A "shamash" is a sort of sophisticated custodian who takes care of a synagogue. The "shamash" is usually the one to look after the physical needs of the service and sometimes also the physical needs of the synagogue itself. He may prepare the Kiddish and make sure that the lights are on. He may arrange for the High Holiday prayer books to come out in time.
JewishJournal.com carrried an article by David Suissa (June 23, 2008) about Albert Lanciano, who was the "shamash"/caretaker of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Westwood, CA. He was the synagogue's resident jack-of-all-trades. When asked for his job description, he said simply, "I do whatever the rabbi needs me to do."
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila said of Albert Lanciano: "He makes
the whole thing run.
That usually means getting up at 5 a.m. to
open the chapel for the day's morning prayers, and when there
are simchas or other events, which is most days. It can mean
being back in bed in the early morning hours. It helps that his
two-bedroom studio is down the hall from Bouskila's office, so
he can steal the occasional nap It also helps that he's a really
happy guy who loves his work."
The job description for a hospital cleaning worker is more specific. Federal, state and local laws govern how hospitals must run in order to protect "der patsyent" (the patient). Hospital cleaning worker are responsible for mopping floors, cleaning surfaces,, removing trash, cleaning glass wndows and mirrors, scrubbing toilets and changing curtains.
Hospital cleaning workers are assigned to one specific area of a hospital to clean during a given shift.
In October 2009, the average hourly rate for a hospital cleaning worker was between $7.41 and $15.96, according to payscale.com.
So, why am I going into such detail about the job/duties/responsibilities of a hospital cleaning worker? Because i just had the pleasure of reading a wonderful book titled, "Practical Wisdom - The Right Way to Do the Right Thing" by Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe. (Riverhead Books, U.S.A. $26.95).
The authors state, "All too often, the diagnosis of the problems in the institutions that serve us is that people don't really care about their work; they are blamed for just caring about making money, or gaining status, or amassing more power. And if greed, gain, and glory are all that motivate people, then it seems as if we have only two choices to induce them to do better: (a) design rules that will compel and enforce better performance, and (b) create incentives that will bribe people to do better work....Aristotle called people who were practically wise PHRONEMOI. Our grandparents would have called such a person a mensch."
Chapter 2 is titled, "What Wisdom Is: The Janitor and the Judge The Wise Custodian." Here we read about Luke, who works as a custodian in a major teaching hospital. The authors write, "In an interview with social scientists interested in studying how people structure their work, Luke reported an incdent in which he cleaned a comatose young paient's room--twice. He had already done it once, but the patient's father, who had been keeping a vigil for months, hadn't seen Luke do it and had snapped at him. So Luke did it again. Graciously. Why? Here is how he explained it.
Luke: I kind of knew the situation about his son. His son had been here for a long time and...from what I hear, his son had got into a fight and he was paralyzed. That's why he got there, and he was in a coma and he wasn't coming out of the coma...and I heard how he got that way. He had got into a fight with a black guy and the black guy really, well, you know because he was there. Well...I went and cleaned his room. His father would stay here every day, all day, but he smoked cigarettes. So, he had went out to smoke a cigarette and after I cleaned the room, he came back up to the room. I ran into him in the hall, and he just freaked out...telling me I didn't do it. I didn't clean the room and all this stuff. And at first, I got on the defensive, and I was going to argue with him. But I don't know. Something caught me and I said, "I'm sorry. I'll go clean the room."
Interviewer: And you cleaned it again?
Luke: Yeah, I cleaned it so that he could see me clean it...I can understand how he could be. It was like six months that his son was here. He'd be a little frustrated, and so I cleaned it again. But I wasn't angry with him. I guess I could understand.
The authors describe Luke's job description, and not a single item on it discusses being a human being. "From this description, Luke could be working in a shoe factory or a mortuary instead of a hospital," they wrote.
The authors continue, "If Luke were doing THIS job, it would have been reasonable for him to have simply explained to the father that he'd already cleaned the room, and perhaps to have brought in his supervisor to mediate if the father remained angry. Luke might have ignored the man and just gone about his business. He might have gotten angry himself."
When the researchers asked the custodians to speak about their jobs, they heard many interesting tales. "Luke's stories told them that his 'official' duties were only one part of his REAL job, and that another, central, part of his job was to make the patients and their families feel comfortable, to cheer them up when they were down, to encourage them and divert them from their pain, to give them a willing ear if they felt like talking. Luke aimed to do something different from mere custodial work."
Yes, as the authors write, "The job they were actually doing was one they crafted for themselves in light of the aims of medical care..They were not generic custodians; they were hospital custodians."
Wouldn't it be nice to have a Luke working in EVERY hospital, nursing home, and senior residence?
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