TAPESCRIPT

PART I:
Interviewer: In the studio tonight, I have the sociologist John Farrendale and
philosopher, Lois Granger and we're going to be discussing attitudes towards work.
Tonight's discussion was prompted by an email from a listener who, amongst other
things, asks why people tend to become depressed if made redundant - as if work
were the be all and end all - rather than seeing that situation as an opportunity to do
something else. John?
John: Well, it can't be denied. I'm afraid, that unemployment is one of those
misfortunes, like soured relationships and chronic pain, that most affect long-term
happiness. Work is good because it gives people meaning, self-respect and the chance
to make a contribution; unemployment conversely robs them of all that, which can
come as a blow. So while I don't doubt, as our listener suggests, that there are people
out there who might cope well with redundancy - see it as a chance to change
direction or whatever - for the majority the opposite is the case. I mean, that's the
reality, isn't it, Lois?
Lois: Well, one rarely meets anyone embracing redundancy, John. But I guess what
our listener is getting at is the fact that paid employment isn't the sole provider of
purpose, self-worth and engagement and I'd go along with that to an extent. Indeed, a
job can work against us if the experience is tedious and it feels irrelevant. Work is
vital to your happiness if work is what you want and if it's fulfilling. But we mustn't
forget that tying too close a knot between meaningful activity and paid employment
can be perilous, as we know from people who lose all sense of meaning when they
retire. And this can affect those who love their jobs just as much as those who see
them as a means to an end.
John: And indeed, there are people like that - who view work simply as that, a way
of funding other things they want, as opposed to something that holds intrinsic value.
Doing a well-paid job that lacks excitement but one which allows you to do exciting
things in your spare time, might work perfectly well for some - and I'd say good luck
to them as long as they get on with the job whilst they're there. Where's the harm in

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it? But I'd say it's preferable to earn less doing something you love, because work
actually takes up an awful lot of your waking life. But if you want the good things in
life and haven't found the kind of meaningful work that can provide them directly,
then you have some thinking to do: the trade-offs are treacherous, and some of what
You value may have to be sacrificed along the way.
Interviewer: You mention attitudes to work, John. We do tend to come down heavily
on slackers, people who don’t pull their weight, don’t we?
John: We do. And amongst the many career options we have to choose from, one is
almost taboo. As the listener who suggested this week's topic put it, someone tempted
to work as little as possible is likely to be 'afraid of being judged as a useless slacker'.
This taboo seems to have grown as our work options have multiplied. Now work is
no longer destiny, determined at birth by the social standing of your parents; how we
earn a living reflects more of our individual qualities and choices, and we're judged
accordingly. But perhaps these judgments are distorted by confusing sound reasons
for thinking work is important with the false belief that honest labour is inherently
virtuous.
Lois: That's right. I mean think of Freud, the famous psychoanalyst, who's widely
attributed with the quote: 'Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.' -
although it's actually a paraphrase by Erikson. What Freud actually said is that 'the
compulsion to work' was 'created by external necessity'. In other words, the
imperative to work springs from practical demands, not immutable psychic needs.
There's nothing valuable in work per se. Indeed, the philosopher Bertrand Russell
went so far as to claim that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is
virtuous - that if we work more than we need to, we deprive ourselves of the time and
opportunity for learning, self-development, relationships and many other things that
make for a better world. If we must work, or choose to do so, what matters is that it
serves the goal of living well, rather than detracts from it.
Interviewer: At that point, I'd like to bring in ……

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PART II:
C= Chloe D= Doug
C: How did you get that scar, if you don’t mind me asking?
D: Which one? The one on my chin?
C: No, I meant the one on your forehead. It’s pretty nasty.
D: Oh, that. Yeah, well, I was smart enough to somehow walk straight into a head-
height shelf when I was 18. I was working at this summer camp in the States and I’d
been out to a party with some friends one night, stumbled home and whacked myself
when I got back to my cabin. I decided that while it hurt a bit, it’d probably be OK
and that what I really needed was my bed. I woke up in the morning to find there was
blood everywhere- all over the bed, the floor- and most shockingly, when I looked in
the mirror, I realized my face was covered in dried blood, which I really hadn’t been
expecting! The doctor said he could have stitched it if I’d seen him right away, but
that it was unstitchable the following day! Just my luck.
C: Oh, that’s awful.
D: Yeah, well, it’ my own stupid fault, really.
C: And…um… I’m scared to ask now, really, but what about that other one?
D: You won’t believe me when I tell you. Honestly.
C: Um… OK. Is it gruesome?
D: Not really. Just odd. I don’t know if you remember, but a couple of years ago,
there were all these reports of people getting blown off their feet by high winds, and
even someone getting killed from being blown head first into a door.
C: No! That must just have completely passed me by somehow.
D: Yeah? Well, it was pretty crazy. What happened with me was that one night I just
got totally blown down the drive at the side of my house, completely out of control! I
somehow managed to go head first between two parked cars, whacking my head on
both of them and landing on my chin in the middle of the road.
C: Ouch!
D: Yeah- and when I came to, I found my chin completely split open… and my
wisdom teeth weren’t too happy either!
C: Woah! You’re fairly accident- prone, really, aren’t you?
D: I’ve got another one, actually, if you want to hear about it….
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PART III:
Welcome, every one, and thank you for attending this, the first in this series of
four lectures. I’m Dr Frederik Sullivan and over the next three days it will be my
pleasure to introduce to you, and help you develop, a skill you may never have
thought you possessed.
Allow me to begin by assuring you that there is nothing miraculous about my
ability to remember anything I want to, be it a name, face, number, fact, or something
I’ve seen or read. Anyone with an average mind can learn quickly to do exactly the
same thing. It may also interest you to know that my own memory was, originally,
very faulty. On meeting a man, I would forget his name in thirty seconds, while now
there are probably over ten thousand men and women in the world whose names I can
recall instantly on meeting them.
The question is, why improve our memories? What do we stand to gain? Well,
consider your professional and social life; wouldn’t it be marvelous, not to mention
useful, if you were able to remember names, telephone numbers, addresses and
appointments without the aid of a computer or personal organizer? Similarly, how
often have you been stuck for something interesting to talk about at a social gathering
just because nothing springs to mind or you aren’t certain of the facts?
By improving your memory, you will also improve your concentration levels,
conversational skills, and your ability to make informed and intelligent decisions.
You will also enjoy a boost in self- confidence and, almost certainly, popularity. If
this isn’t reason enough, a full and active memory has been scientifically proven to
combat dementia and even prolong life. In a moment, I will introduce you to Dr
Debra Beckinsale, of the University of London. When it comes to the mind, she’s a
firm believer in the “use it or lose it” philosophy. But first let’s take a look at that
most astonishing, though I might add underused, organ- the human brain.
What is memory? Well, memory comprises immediate or “short term” memory
which allows us to retain information to maintain a train of thought or to perform a
task, and ‘long term” memory which stores information for months, years or even a
lifetime. Memories are formed by chemical changes between the nerve cells here in
the cerebral cortex, thalamus and hippocampus. Each time you learn something new,
chemical changes cause new pathways, or memory traces, to develop between
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neurons. These pathways can be activated at any time to reproduce the thoughts we
call memories. Now, these areas of the brain are also….

PART IV:
Interviewer: The work we do and the places we do it in are changing faster than at
any time since the industrial revolution. Nobody knows exactly what the long- term
effects of this will be, which can make secure career planning difficult. But are we
worrying about the wrong questions? Maybe the question we should be asking
ourselves is not “How will globalization and new technology alter our working
environment?” but “What skills will I need to survive in it?” And that’s the question
we are going to address on this week’s programme with the help of Robert Lee,
founder of The Talent Corporation, one of a growing number of recruitment agencies
for highly- skilled people that are beginning to spring up on the net. So can you tell
us the answer, Bob?
Robert: Well, I don’t know about that, but what I can tell you is that human skills are
the essential foundations for success in the e-economy. As corporations downsize, the
workplace is going to be taken over by an already growing group of workers, the so-
called e- lancers, who are marketing their professional skills on a freelance basis
using the net. This has led to a growing trend in the e-lance economy known as the
talent auction. Basically what happens is, a client posts details of an upcoming project
on the net and invites e-lancers to bid against one another for the contract. The
advantage of this method is that clients have an international selection to choose
from. It’s all very competitive, so as you can imagine, in this environment, the
effective worker will be the one with the capacity to retain contact with a wide range
of people in a wide range of organisations across a wide range of locations. What’s
really going to be needed is people who have the desire and ability to learn. Technical
skills are no longer sufficient to secure employment because current computer
systems will probably be obsolete in as little as three years’ time, making it crucial
for employers to find ways to evaluate their staff’s ability for and dedication to
learning, because if trainees don’t possess the appropriate skills, qualities and level of
commitment, training investments will be a waste of money.
Interviewer: And how are employers supposed to go about doing that?
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Robert: Well, our research suggests that staff who already possess sufficient
emotional intelligence can benefit from motivational courses which are designed to
raise their self-awareness which in turn helps them decide what to learn in order to
succeed. One of the most obvious ways of improving your learning capacity is by
studying what you want to study. If you like art history for example, study it. Okay,
what you’re learning may become out of date or irrelevant, but you won’t lose what
you have gained from the process itself. Learning for learning’s sake is the new trend.
So all those people who fooled around in history or French classes at school, because
they didn’t think there was any point in learning those subjects, were missing the
point and depriving themselves of a valuable learning experience. Another thing
companies will have to do is retrain their managers. In some cases their role will need
to be completely reassessed and in all cases they’ll need new skills. Managing e-
lancers and e-commuters isn’t the same as managing a group of people whose hours
and responsibilities are rigidly defined and over whom you can keep a watchful eye
most of the time. Furthermore, managers are not only dealing with a vastly different
workforce nowadays, they’re also dealing with a different commodity, the old
attitude that existed in the industrial age that time is money has become outdated.
Managers need to focus on output, not on time. It’s what staff produce, not where or
how they produce it that matters. If a worker is meeting their targets, what does it
matter if they e-mail their friends or book their holiday on the office computer?
Interviewer: So, what you’re saying is, humans are not going to be ultimately
replaced by machines?
Robert: Quite the opposite in fact. As I said at the beginning…..