Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Equitable Work Sharing

[Kay Argyle (kay.argyle]

I think a lot depends on the balance between people who care about work
getting done and those who don't mind if the roof doesn't get repaired for a
year (while a leak shorts the electrical system and rots the wallboard), as
long as everyone is happy (three guesses which camp I fall into). Having
more of the former influences how soon, or even whether, and how
realistically, the community addresses how to get community work done to a
satisfactory standard without anyone feeling put upon.  I suspect
communities have a choice - engage the issue early on, paying a toll to
cruise on the Work Policy Highway, or putter along in no particular
direction and take out half the member's suspensions along Burn Out Wash.

First move-in November 1999, so we're going on for nine years - maybe it
takes twenty before there's nobody left in the community who isn't as
cheerful about laissez-faire work sharing and a manana perspective as Rob
sounds. (I realize that may sound like criticism, but it isn't. I'm sure his
attitude is much better for the blood pressure. The work issue is one of the
reasons I don't really expect to be still around when the community is
twenty years old - which would seem to support his view.)

Early on, people try to motivate others, by exhortation or example - and get
labeled "overachievers" (one of the politer terms, actually).  When
motivating proved ineffective, I followed Napoleon's dictum (the horse in
Animal Farm), "I'll work harder" - except one person working harder doesn't
make a dent (and I should have kept in mind what became of Napoleon).

Some leave rather than have their self-respect galled by weeds and broken
boards any longer; some out of concern that deferred maintenance will mean
bank-breaking assessments. Others scale back and practice turning a blind
eye. Some move out emotionally. Some work just as hard but only on their own
interests. New residents self-select for a willingness to disregard
shabbiness.  

This shake-out makes for less friction, and also for fewer residents with
high standards and a strong work ethic.

Obviously I'm not particularly accepting of this - realize that a childhood
singing, "Put your shoulder to the wheel, push along / Do your duty with a
heart full of song / We all have work, let no one shirk / Put your shoulder
to the wheel" leaves its mark, even on a recovering Mormon (#252 in the hymn
book).

Sorry if this message veers into rant. I'm feeling more than a little snarky
about a proposal (not mine) that went down in flames at this week's meeting.
Obviously of importance to the households bringing it, and blocked by people
hardly affected. It seems sometimes that anyone who actually wants to
accomplish anything meets resistance, if not subtle sabotage. Yet since the
sacred mantra of "it'll harm the community" has been evoked (an
already-consensed fence being easy-care vinyl instead of high-maintenance
wood - speaking of work - and actually tall enough to afford the living
rooms the semi-privacy that most of the other units already enjoy in their
backyards? give me a break), the likelihood that *not* passing it will harm
the community, is irrelevant. ... Never mind me. 

Kay
Wasatch Commons
SLC