Joy in Work
How often have we thought to ourselves I can’t wait until retirement or heard others say how tired they are of going to work. I know one person who never said anything like that. He was my dad, and only days before he died – not knowing how serious his health condition was, he asked the doctor, “How productive will I be? I still have things to do.”
Russell Wilson was born
A few months after dad officially retired at age 84, his company called him to a staff meeting. He wondered why they were calling him to a meeting. He sat through the meeting and at the end they called him up front and told him that they wanted to honor his long years of loyal employment. They told him that they considered a gold watch, but they knew he had gold watches from other organizations so they decided to name a new machine in his honor. The official name of the machine is the RW Automatic Cut-To-Length & Insulation Stripping Machine. He was so proud! This was so much better than any gold watch he could imagine.
At the memorial service for dad, I spoke to one of dad’s supervisors. First of all he said he worked with my dad for 28 years and learned so much from him. He said, “I never saw him get angry. He made my job really easy.”
Having retired from his primary job, dad continued working at his part time job. I talked to one of his supervisors at this job and he said, “Russell never needed to be told what to do. He just always saw what needed to be done and did it. It could be that the weeds were growing through the cracks in the sidewalk, or that the cardboard boxes needed to be broken down. I would sweep the floor and then Russell would really sweep the floor by moving things and getting into the corners and finding the dirt that I didn’t.”
During his whole career, dad did things for others as well. He was always sharpening scissors for family friends, or chopper blades for farmer friends. He was a member of the volunteer fire department for nearly 60 years, and he was president for 20 of those years.
One of dad’s saddest times was when he was given a “pink slip” from the hardware store he worked at part time for 62 years. Well it wasn’t really a pink slip. A new owner bought the store, and they began a cost savings campaign by cutting some employees. So he was told nicely that they wouldn’t need him any longer. So what did dad do? He went to work the next day and kept doing the same things he always did. The supervisor approached him and said, “Russell, didn’t you understand that you aren’t to come to work any more?” Dad said, “The work is still here, you don’t have to pay me.” But they told him that they just couldn’t have him work any longer, because they didn’t have insurance to cover him. It took dad several weeks to get over this rejection and until he could figure out where he could work next.
Dad soon figured out that he could work to help others. When a neighbor was in poor health he began taking care of his lawn. The neighbor’s wife said, “Sometimes we would wake in the morning and I would tell Leroy, I guess the gardener is here,” when we would hear the clip, clip, clip of a pruning shears outside our window where Russell would be trimming our bushes.
During my whole life, I never heard dad express any reluctance to take on a job. He never thought of work as drudgery. He always thought of it as something that needed to be done or an opportunity to make things better.
I find my dad’s work experience remarkable and inspiring. He didn’t have high ambitions for power or money. His aim in life was to be productive and that was reward enough for him and rewarding for all who knew him.
I wish all of you similar joy in your careers.