Bloggers Unite for Human Rights: The Right to Work at The Office
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- May
- 15
When fellow RA’er Amy Vernon brought the idea to me to use our little TV Blog as a platform to help raise public awareness about human rights, my reaction was rather Grey’s Anatomy-esque.
I thought, seriously?
I mean, I’m all for human rights—I know, who isn’t?—and I knew Amy wouldn’t have suggested it if it wasn’t a good idea.
But I write about the antics of Tracy Jordan and Dwight Schrute. When I get serious I delve into the heart of Jim and Pam’s relationship or Sarah Connor’s dilemma as a single mom raising the leader of the resistance against a futuristic army of homocidal cyborgs.
My point is, I don’t deal a lot with reality in this blog. And it doesn’t get more real than human rights. But if vigilance is the best, perhaps the only defense against rights abuses, then I figures even a humble TV blog ought to play its part.
And it didn’t require much deliberation before I decided the fundamental right to work would be my topic for the day. After all, my favorite show, the reason why I blog about TV, is The Office. And The Office is nothing if it is not an love letter to tge working man and woman.
First, a little background. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948 in Paris enumerates many basic rights. Article 23 states “Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.” It continues…
- Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
- Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration, ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
- Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Jim Halpert may rail against the lunacy of his boss, Michael Scott. But the Scranton, Penn., branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Co. is a veritable bastion of employment bliss. “A manager doesn’t fire people. A manager hires people. He inspires people,” Michael says in the episode “Business School.”
That is not the ethos of many employers, and it probably goes a tad too far in the other direction. But a society that does not create an environment that encourages and fosters free employment, that does not defend against unfair compensation practices that favor one individual or class of people over another, or that fails to secure the right of workers to collectively bargain is a flawed society, one that risks unrest, apathy, discontent and upheaval.
No, Dunder Mifflin is no sweatshop, and it hasn’t been suggested that Phyllis or Stanley earn less commission on equivalent sales as Dwight or Jim. The hours seem reasonable, and the office is well-lit. The health care plan is pretty bad, admittedly, but it’s better than no health plan at all.
But while you tune in to tonight’s finale, ponder at least for a moment that there are those who don’t enjoy what Michael Scott’s “family” probably never gives a second thought to. They have good jobs.
As long as there’s no downsizing.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pm by Brian Howard.
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