AN EXTRACT FROM SAFEGUARD

20 YEARS AGO: SEPT/OCT 1998 – ISSUE 51

Here is how I know my work is good:

• • 
  I can finish my tasks or, for a long task, I can structure its completion in stages.
• • 
  I find it satisfying to finish my tasks.
• • 
  If I have difficulties, I can and do ask others for help.
• • 
  It is unusual for anyone here to put me down, so I don’t often have bad feelings.
• • 
  If something unpleasant does happen, I solve it. I don’t go on and on about it.
• • 
  There are positive qualities to the way I relate to others here.

We would expect such a person to be healthy. So, if you have a bad job and remove the bad bits, that’s good. But to make a job good, things need to be added to the work. This means there is a balance of responsibility for good, healthy work between the individual and organisation.

[Extract from a story by Frank Darby and David Brown]