Work, Rest and Play

Quote

"L'Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers" (England is a nation of shopkeepers).  Napoleon Bonaparte

News

In a few hours the world’s eyes will be on London for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.   The stated purpose of the Games is ‘to build a better world through sport practised in a spirit of peace, excellence, friendship and respect’.  They provide a unique opportunity to encourage healthy relationships, from the personal to the international level. 

Healthy relationships make healthy people, and when such relationships are expressed through a balance of work, rest and play they promote the wellbeing of society as a whole, as well as for the individuals involved.  However, that balance has been undermined in three notable ways recently.

Firstly, Sunday trading restrictions have been suspended for two months, “to show the world that Britain is open for business” as the Chancellor stated (proving Napoleon right).   The problem is that one person’s freedom to shop is another person’s obligation to work.  Sunday trading has not brought economic prosperity (Germany manages OK without it) and denies the poorest wage earners the chance of a shared day of rest with family and friends.

Then the willingness of immigration staff at Heathrow airport to strike the day before the Olympics shows an extraordinary level of callousness at a time when every Londoner needs to show goodwill and go the extra mile in order to welcome the millions of visitors to the city this summer.  Fortunately for travellers, the strike was called off.  In a relational society, to work is to serve.

Lastly, several Olympic hopefuls have been banned from competing this week after failing drugs tests.  It is a sad indictment that more than 1,000 people will staff the anti-doping laboratory for the London Games, with up to 400 samples tested daily for more than 240 prohibited substances.  The commercialisation of sport means that enhancing individual performance is worth a lot of money; old fashioned fair play increasingly comes with a price tag.

The Olympics Games are all about challenge – but not just for the athletes.  There is an opportunity also for every spectator and official, broadcaster and caterer, politician and shopkeeper to do their very best in all their relationships as they work, rest and play over these weeks... now that would make for a memorable Olympics.

  

Read on…

An opinion poll taken this week shows that a majority of people in Britain are opposed to longer Sunday trading hours.  Read the article here.  

Walk the talk

How well would you score on a work/rest/play check-up?  What one step might you take to bring more balance into your life and family?

The last word

From the Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

[I will be walking the talk and off on holiday for the next two weeks!  Friday Five will be back mid-August…]

Britain's troubled families

Quote

“In each family a story is playing itself out, and each family's story embodies its hope and despair.”  Auguste Napier

News

In the wake of the riots that erupted in Britain last August, the government tasked Louise Casey with investigating the 120,000 ‘troubled families’ that cost the UK taxpayer £9 billion annually.  Her initial report this week described how many of these families are trapped in an intergenerational cycle of welfare dependency, violence and abuse. 

Ms Casey wrote “…the traditional approach of services reaching individual family members… and trying to fix single issues such as 'drug use', 'non-attendance at school' or 'domestic violence' in these families is most often destined to fail. Their behaviours and problems can be properly understood only by looking at the full cycle – and the full family.”

It is a positive step to take this integrated view of families – not an easy task given that government services are organised around specialised agencies, each with a different mandate.   For this approach to be effective, a relational perspective is needed also, to get to the underlying causes. 

Dysfunctional families are those in which core relationships are broken, absent or toxic.  A family is a system, with an internal relational structure through which values (whether good or bad) are transferred.  If values are not passed on by design, then they will be passed on by default.

Therefore one of the most effective interventions for turning troubled families around over time is by building and strengthening two core relationships, to make them more viable and sustainable: the relationship between the child’s mother and father, and the parenting relationship. 

Supporting couple relationships education and parenting initiatives will not solve all the immediate problems of the most troubled families, but it could go a long way towards breaking the cycle and introducing a glimmer of hope that the next generation will not be condemned to repeat the same, tragic cycle.

Read on...

Another crucial relationship involved in supporting dysfunctional families is the one between local government agencies and the family members.  A project in Swindon set out to build strong relationships and increase the time key workers spend face to face with families, rather than on paperwork, from 20% to 80%.  Read about this innovative and influential pilot project here. 

Walk the talk

How aware are you of the most troubled families in your neighbourhood? Why not contact the local council and find out what initiatives are being taken to bring about lasting changes, and see if there is any way you could support them?

The last word

From the Bible, Isaiah chapter 1, verse 17:  “…learn to do right!  Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.  Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

The three ‘R’s revisited

Quote

"Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

News

Persistent youth unemployment is a worrying trend in many high income countries.   In Spain and Greece, nearly 50% of 15-24 year olds are out of work; in UK, France, USA and Sweden, as well as the EU average, the figure is around 22-23%; only a few countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Norway have below 10% of young people out of work.

On the one hand, recession means there are fewer jobs to go round; but on the other, employers are complaining that teenagers increasingly lack the soft skills which are vital for entering the workforce, especially in the service sector which accounts for three-quarters of all jobs.  Communication skills, the ability to cooperate with team mates, resolve conflicts and speak with courtesy are as valuable as the academic qualifications that schools deliver.

The phrase ‘The three Rs’ was coined in 1795 by Sir William Curtis, referring to reading, reckoning and wroughting.  The latter was the practical ability to make things, indicative of the skills required during the industrial revolution.  30 years later Sir William changed the phrase to “reading, writing and arithmetic”, which became the essence of primary education.  Late in the 20th century, manufacturing gave way to the service sector as the main source of employment, so the most important functional skills for school leavers became literacy, numeracy and ICT (information and communication technology).

Now children of the digital age are highly skilled in using new technology, but the trend towards convenience in communication (via mobile phones and social media), and individual consumption of entertainment, has left young people with an over-reliance on technology, and lagging behind in the face-to-face relational skills which employers prize.

Is it time to redefine the three ‘R’s once again?  If young people left school not only reading and writing well, and competent in arithmetic, but also strong relationally (in both skills and attitudes), they would fare better in a tough job market and be well placed to form healthy families and participate maturely in wider society.

Read on

The Work Foundation has just published a report, ‘Short-term crisis – long-term problem?

Addressing the youth employment challenge’ looks at the main causes and longer term consequences of the issue, and makes policy recommendations for public, private and third sector agencies.  Read the report here.

Walk the talk
Teaching soft skills should not be left to schools; they can all be learned in the home environment.  What opportunities might you create to help build up the confidence of teenagers – your own or others known to you – and add to their relational skills?

The last word

From the Bible, Ephesians 4 verse 29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”