The dignity of work is a strange phrase. It is almost never used as an abstract truth, though it intends to be. Otherwise we would hear related truths:

The dignity of leisure.
…of sleep.
…of walking your dog.

Or even more telling:
The dignity of driving while black.
…of sleeping on the sidewalk.
…of walking in public unaccosted.

If the phrase The dignity of work was about highlighting the inherent dignity found in living, we would have to face the facts that dignity is often the thing most absent from our relationship to work.

We all know the phrase isn’t an abstract truth, however. It is spin; propaganda meant to encourage the centrality of work in everyone’s life. Work, then, is the default and source of dignity. Which doesn’t comport with reality.

Many millions can’t find meaningful work;
…have disabilities which make work difficult;
…are underemployed
…work past retirement,
…scrape by on more than one job,
…have little life outside of work.

Then, when we add in children and retirees, we are left with a majority of the population who aren’t presently working.

If working offers dignity, then only a minority receive it.

As a concept, I do think “work” has an inherent dignity. So does leisure, raising kids, or playing an instrument.

However, I don’t think people really need to be sold in any way on the idea of work. It is only an abstract concept. But the phrase, dignity of work, does reveal that there is something genuinely in short supply in people’s lives: dignity.

We are trying to sell people on the idea that the dignity they crave can be found primarily through work. Which means most of us are left out.

Work that doesn’t alleviate poverty offers no dignity. Nor does working a thankless job for poverty wages.

We want to outsource the work of making dignity to the work itself. Like the sheer act of working provides dignity. An idea as absurd as it is beneficial to abusive bosses.

The only dignity in work is the dignity we put in to our work and the dignity we offer others. Because dignity isn’t created by work or offered through work. It starts and ends with us.