In praise of work

The BB7 housemates include a Scouser and a man who claims to have been unemployed for 21 years. Surprisingly, these are two different people.
But Shahbaz's behaviour - which seems even more annoying to his housemates than to me - carries a lesson. Even more than the other housemates, the guy is completely self-obsessed and oblivious to others.
This, I suspect, reveals a benefit of working. In any job, we have to consider how our behaviour affects other people. We therefore learn some self-awareness. Because Shahbaz hasn't been in work*, he's never learnt this.
It's a cliche that employers want "people skills." But Shahbaz's conduct suggests that employment can create such skills, as well as select for them.
Smith and Marx both argued that employment dehumanized and deskilled workers. Shahbaz provides evidence to the contrary.
* Assuming his claim is correct - which I find only slightly more plausible than Sezer's supposed career history.

Comments

[Shuggy]

He was a pupil at the school I used to teach in. Before my time but apparently he was like that at school (i.e. REALLY annoying). He then left Glasgow to pursue a career in London - dressing up as Wonder Woman. I'm led believe the demand for people who like dressing up as Wonder Woman isn't what it was.

[Backword Dave]

I'm still, just, hanging on to my admiration of Shahbaz. I really think that he must exist, and it must all be true. If Shahbaz did not exist, it would have been necessary for the Smiths to invent him.

That said, all my intial impressions look completely wrong. (This is one thing I like about BB; it's not totally useless, it does teach you something: if you start a new job, you really can't judge people until you've seen them for a while. Everyone knows this, but BB proves it.) The toff seems OK, Dawn hasn't killed anyone yet, Richard may be less excutiatingly camp than I feared. Mikey is bearably quite, and Sezer needs his head looked. Bona and Nicky are as vacant as I expected though.

[Brad Mullet]

I have to agree with you there, he reminds me a bit of my sister who's in a similar situation and also a bit detatched from reality.

Also Dave's comment about first impressions is so true. However, it doesn't help that the housemates are billed according to stereotype - gay bodybuilder, chav girl (x2), hornball (Sezer), etc....