Imagine a Reader at Work - Really, a Reader

The next entry in the Rule addresses the role of a "reader." This chap does just what his title implies. He reads. When and where? In the dining room when the monks are eating. 

Really. The monks had a Reader during meals. Maybe they still do.

That can't possible apply to the workplace, can it? Can you picture someone hired to read to you while you work?

If it seems odd having a reader while the monks chomp on their dinner, and odder to think of a reader at your workplace, you likely didn't ever know someone who worked in a shop that had a reader. I did know a certain someone. It was my late Aunt. Here's the story.

She and my Mom and their family lived in Tampa Florida, more specifically Ybor City - a section of Tampa - in the first decades of the 20th century. My Aunt was born in Italy; my Mom in Ybor City. They grew up there for a while. My Aunt, the older sister, got a job rolling cigars. Cigar rolling was done by hand in those days. (It still is I think.) It was a pretty good business that employed lots of people. You basically sat in a chair at a long table with your stuff - tobacco for the filling, tobacco leaves for the wrapping - and wrapped your cigars. It did take some skill to do this. But as you might imagine, it was quite repetitive. 

And so the company hired someone with a strong voice to read to them throughout the work day. My dear Aunt told me all about it. As you might imagine, with skill and experience, you could pay attention to the reader and still do a pretty good job rolling the cigars. She enjoyed listening. It kept her mind alert. 

I never got into details of exactly what was read. Stories? Novels? The Bible? "How To" instructions? All of the above? I don't know. I just know my Aunt liked the idea of the reader being there. Remember that this was at a time when such folks as my Aunt, an immigrant, could not afford to go to school past a certain grade. She had to work to help support the family. Perhaps what was read was especially nourishing intellectually. I don't know. I just know she enjoyed it.

I wonder if that function still exists anywhere. If you know of such a situation, let me know. Even if it doesn't exist anymore, it did once. So, yes, a reader can hold a valuable spot in the workplace, not just in monasteries.

And, if we think about it, the reader would have served to preserve a sense of peace and calm in the minds of those coming in every day to perform the same task over and over again. And that would have promoted stability in the workplace - a recurring theme in our ongoing exploration of the Rule of St. Benedict.

Now, a cigar rolling enterprise, employing lots of individuals, might have benefited from a reader, as we just indicated. But how many other modern businesses could utilize this practice? I can't think of any - at least in the developed world. (Do modern cigar companies employ readers these days.) So is that the end of our discussion of St. Benedict's comments about the Reader?

 Not so fast. There's a lot that the Rule has to say about the Reader. It starts with:

"At the meals of the brethren there should not fail to be reading; nor should the reader be anyone who may chance to take up the book; but let there be a reader for the whole week who shall enter upon his office on Sunday."

Right away we see that there was a selection process involved. Not everyone qualified as a Reader. St. Benedict, with his practical sense, realized that the Abbot had to exercise good judgment to find the right individuals. But isn't this consistent with the other positions, like the Cellarer? Some people do some things better than other people. It's the same as it would be in any well-run company.

 Having been in work environments where qualifications for certain positions never moved much beyond "warm body," I can attest to the importance of carefully matching the task or tasks to the skills and experience of the worker. Heck, shouldn't that be obvious? Of course it should! But, for various reasons, some bosses and/or companies don't get it. And when they don't, the workplace winds up being fairly (a lot?) chaotic and the furthest from stable that you can imagine.

Next time we'll let St. Benedict finish his description of the Reader. We should be able to pick up more practical tidbits that we can apply to our own businesses.