| Community - Gone? Or Just Harder to Find? | |
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by: Susan M. Heathfield
Community is breaking down in America with serious implications for
volunteerism, charity-giving, religious practices, neighborhoods, friendships, family, democracy, and society. In the
compelling book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert Putnam provides extensive research that
documents we are doing more alone. As an example, people are bowling more, but league participation has fallen 40 percent. Voting
is down 25 percent since 1960. Families are doing less together and people are having fewer friends over for dinner.
Participating in community activities has become a challenge rather than something that is taken for granted. I always think
about my father when I think about community. He had friends all over the neighborhood and they'd talk together when they walked around
the block. (When's the last time you did that?) He had a favorite diner where he lunched with his community crowd almost every day.
He ran Bingo games and Ice-Cream Socials to raise money for the church and attended services several times a week. He was part of the Men's Club, the Parent-Teachers
Organization, the Ushers and the Knights of Columbus. He sold insurance, mostly so he got to spend long hours talking with people.
He saw all his friends from high school up until the day he died. And, all the people, from all of the community activities over all the years,
showed up for his funeral. My life is so different. How about yours? Putman speculates that the rise in television viewing, two career families, suburban sprawl, and time spent commuting to work
all contribute to this lessening sense of community. In her list of trends for 2002, Faith Popcorn, the marketing maven, predicts
that mandatory volunteering: volunteering motivated by the need to have it on a resume versus truly altruistic motives, will occur.
At the same time, when interviewed, many Americans cite "lack of community" as one of their life concerns. So, the need and dream remain, but the actual process of being part of communities has fallen on rough times. People who participate in communities that they can successfully integrate in their daily lives are more exceptional these days.
I was interviewed today by a reporter who is doing an article on office romance and how it positively and negatively impacts the work place. I told him that one of the reasons employers are more lenient these days about fraternization policies is that people are working long hours on their careers. So, in a society in which community is already falling by the wayside, the next generation of workers finds much of their community at work. This is why community activities through work are increasing. Dating and romance are also increasing, as I said in an earlier article, Tips About Dating, Sex, and Romance at Work.
Just Thinking ...I'm not going to offer any conclusions or recommendations as this article supplies food for thought. Certainly, the implications of our need for community versus our inability to satisfy this need in the larger community, has implications for work. Dating, friendships, co-workers going out for a drink on Fridays and work-sponsored events and activities have always existed. They just seem to be becoming more common in today's workplace. The youngest generation of workers may change all of this, too, as the group is more committed to issues of work-life balance.
On this note, I'd like to introduce our guest writer. Suellen Hozman has worked in materials management. She is a speaker and facilitator. I first met her in the late eighties and we had lunch. With my traveling, her career changes, and need I mention, the lack of pursuit of community, we lost touch. In a committee meeting that Suellen facilitated at work, one participant was asked to research the subject of "trust." He found my article Trust Rules: The Most Important Secret in a search at Google.com. Suellen remembered me. We had lunch again. She sent me this piece about community to share with you. Community comes full circle.
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