Gutter work

Oct 13, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – An interesting story appeared on social media this past week. It was narrated by a young man who said he was from the ghetto. One evening while sipping a bottled beverage, he was approached by a person who offered him a job of cleaning gutters. He considered the offer disrespectful. After all, according to him, Guyana is now an oil producer and he wanted to know why the ghetto youths should not be getting jobs pumping oil.
It was not his narration of the incident, which was most interesting but rather the responses which his story attracted. These responses can be divided into two categories: the first set of responses felt that the offer of ‘gutter work’ was insulting to the ghetto youth; that the person making the offer would not have made that offer in an upper-income community.
Some of the responders said the offer typifies how some view the ghetto – as being fit only for certain types of work and how those making these offers would not offer to help elevate people in the ghetto. The person relating the incident feels that when persons come into the ghetto to make such offers, they are disrespecting the young people because they should be offering better job opportunities.
The second set of responses was to the effect that there is nothing wrong with doing certain type of manual labour such as cleaning gutters. A man said that he started doing that type of work and it helped pay his way through school. Today he is a top engineer. Another said there are persons who became millionaires from picking up garbage. Yet another said that she started cleaning toilets and today owns and runs her own business. Others said it is not the type of work which matters but what it pays.
The two sets of responses typify two approaches to work in Guyana. On the one hand, there are those who refuse to do certain types of jobs because they feel it is beneath them. Yet these same persons when they go overseas would do the same jobs – such as cleaning floors or working as salesgirls or salesmen in stores – which they spurn in Guyana. Some persons demand ‘proper jobs’, refusing to do menial or flunky work.
The other approach to work is that you take what you get and use it as a stepping-stone to other opportunities. Old people used to say “take what you get until you get what you want”. In the responses to the ghetto lad, one man related that his father sold provisions which at the time fetched a poor price but he continued because it was a job and regardless of its poor returns, it helped to take care of his family.
There is work available in Guyana. But there are persons who feel that they should not be doing certain kinds of jobs. They feel that their qualifications and skills make them suitable for better employment opportunities. And so they prefer to stay at home and let Ma and Pa take care of them while they wait for their dream job or their visa approval.
There are many young persons who shy away from agricultural work because they do not want to get their hands dirty. Yet agriculture work, though more strenuous, is far more rewarding, financially, than working as a salesperson in some store.
You would be surprised to learn what salesgirls are earning per day. If they planted a little kitchen garden and sold their produce, they would make just as much. But they consider working in a store of higher status than getting their hands dirty.
On the other hand, there are persons who adopt the attitude that you have to creep before you walk. They accept any type of work until they can find what they want. As someone said, “work is work”. You take what you get and use it to get where you want to go. Many Guyanese who are now rich and financially secure, started out doing menial jobs.
The positions of both perspectives are understandable. Why settle for menial employment when your ambitions are much higher. On the other hand, the other perspective is that you should not feel any shame or loss of pride in doing menial employment.
It boils down to one’s philosophy of work. If work is viewed solely for what it pays rather than for its intrinsic dignity, then it is often assessed in terms of status, its remuneration or the means towards an end.
All work should be valued whether it is cleaning the gutter or pumping oil. Unfortunately, we have developed gradations of value, which encourage us to look down on some forms of work and to look up to others… rather looking at the work itself and its utility.

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Gutter work

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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Gutter work

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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