Zero hours contracts and casual working cause even more uncertainty in these difficult times

Exmouth Community Food Larder manager Anthony Bernard. (Image: Archant)

'Teams' is a good sounding word; but the workplace reality for too many people is that jobs are just individuals working for other individuals, with a faceless employer in charge.

Creating a team working together for a common aim is different.

There is no more basic parallel than the front line in Ukraine, where outnumbered volunteers from all walks of Ukrainian life are bonding together, fighting for the freedom of their country, and winning against Russians who are just following orders for pay.

The job market and business world have come to regard workers just as necessary costs in performing tasks and producing things. We now have bakery operatives - previously we had bakers.

Maybe the growth of robotics has made it easy to regard a person in this way; maybe this is just another example of employers losing touch with humanity, in fact some employers are companies, not people.

On the other hand, the workplace is an important part of social fabric for most of us; lockdown caused isolation and mental problems for many.

It is impossible to budget without a regular steady income; the cost of living crisis is bad enough for many people without the added uncertainty of how much income each week will bring.

In the original lockdown we discovered that social interaction is important.

The 'work from home' debate is reminding us that mutual interaction is important both for creative thinking and team spirit.

Zero hours contracts and casual work leads to thinking that an employee's work can be turned on and off like a machine.

But as many businesses know, that does not bring out the best in people.

A robot can be turned on and off, and will do what is programmed; people are not like that - in fact 'artificial intelligence' is trying to bring robots up to speed.

Years ago, employment was more or less permanent, there would be arrangements for child care where it was needed; the workplace was a small community.

This is not left wing propaganda for workers' rights, zero hours contracts and casual employment are not the best way forward for management.

Teams working as a community tend to be happier and more productive than loose gatherings of people given different jobs.

Part of the Christian message which gets little attention is that the leader should be the servant of the group; leaders may get better pay and include the job of firing failed workers, but should serve the group as a whole, not the leader's ego.

There can be no more dramatic example today than the leader of the political party 'Servant of the People' in the Ukraine - Volodymyr Zelensky - who had no more schooling in political leadership than the fishermen chosen by Jesus to be key followers.

A national newspaper pointed out how totalitarian aggression in Ukraine is strengthening support for democracies; these other problems should strengthen the value we place on people's work and effort, employers realising that the workplace is part of the community.

Good examples are businesses bringing their staff together as a team while recovering from the pandemic, as well as volunteer communal activities springing up all over East Devon.

While we have our share of disadvantaged people, we also have affluent neighbours to balance up.

As we improve our structures and ride out this storm, the foodbank and other groups are badly needed, but also well supplied to cover the gaps.