Rethinking Work Ethic For The Age Of Convergence

Lately, questions have arisen about the true meaning of work. Work has been a significance to humans since the time around the middle 1600’s. Although work began at this time, it evolved into something more powerful and advanced a couple more centuries later. During the late 18th century, the work force began to boom during the industrial period. The world was heavily influenced by the work field and managed to establish one’s sense of character. If one worked their determination and values were clearly sought out by others. The importance of work begins with women becoming involved, wanting to make a difference in society and show the men they could do it too. Consequently, leaving the world to wonder if work is even a necessity to the civilian

Work and its role in society has become the subject of considerable public commentary and debate in recent years. Work, for many Americans, has changed significantly over the past 25 years. Some people believe that the world of work is changing so thoroughly and quickly that we should consider ourselves pioneers of a new historical era. Some say that the idea of a job has become antiquated.

“The Importance of Work” is an essay from The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan. The whole essay talks about how humans can contribute to the society with their full capacities through work and that women should hold jobs equivalent to men. Friedan insists that men and women need work that satisfies their creativity and contributes to human society. Today, doing paid work is a necessity because it helps us get through the day wether for our needs or our pleasures. The money earned from work supports the whole family. According to Mrs. Olive Schreiner, “if women did not win back their right to a full share of honored and useful work, women’s mind and muscle would weaken in a parasitic state; her offspring, male and female would weaken progressively, and civilization itself would deteriorate.” (Friedan 8) I strongly agree with this statement. I believe that the work ethic of most generations are influenced by parents. It is obvious that we look up to our parents. If the parents do not show any desire to work, their children will copy them and will not contribute to society. If a mother who is a stay-at-home mother or has a different job does not work hard or does not show any work ethic, her children will look up to her and follow her footsteps and eventually “civilization would deteriorate.” (Friedan 8)

The origins of a work ethic and a capitalist culture

He attributes the existence of this work ethic in such an entitlement based society to the translation of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in the 1930s. He attributes the book, written by Max Weber, to starting America’s love affair with the work ethic. This work ethic, he claims, led to the dominance of American enterprise and world leadership.

American entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, once said: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Some people may take a job out of necessity rather than being passionate about their work. You have to love what you do as you spend more time working than being with loved ones. In Studs Terkel’s Working, adapted by Harvey Pekar, the reader is presented with visual adaptations of the lives of ordinary Americans that show how they feel about what they do for a living ranging from farmers, miners, barbers, box boys, and a hooker are some of the jobs mentioned in the novels. The author gives the

Therefore, the work schedule of the majority of Americans is greatly time-consuming and restrictive in how their life is like. Employment is restrictive in the sense that it doesn’t allow for much free time for Americans to do things in their life how they would like. Hochschild states, “But without overstating the case, it seems true that capitalism is a cultural as well as an economic system and that the symbols and rituals of this cultural system compete with, however much they seem to serve, the symbols and rituals of community and family.” (Hochschild 187) Most Americans are employed around capitalistic ideas of efficiency. Employers require employees to commit long hours, days, and years of their life to working for them. Employers also seek maximum efficiency in the time that employees are working. This commitment that employees make to their employment takes away from things that they value as mentioned by Hochschild. Unfortunately, Americans are forced to deal with this because they want to establish economic stability for themselves. Furthermore, the work life of

Etzioni uses 3-4 statistics all showing reasoning that working does more bad than good when its comes to developing into a conscientious and abounding adult. From proving it distracts from school, impedes social development and creates an unhealthy consumeristic mindset that drops kids into a mindset of instant gratification which is hazardous to their internal locus of control.

In “The Abolition of Work” by Bob Black, work is depicted as the cause of all problems of the world today. Bob argues that the only way the world’s problems will end is when people realize that they need to stop working. He proposes the adoption of playful ways of doing things in life rather than having to work. While “Summertime Dues” Walter Kirn uses his experience in a summer job to question the integrity and usefulness of such jobs to the youth. While summer jobs are supposed to instill responsibility and character in youths, both Bob Black have a similar voice on why working and can cause misery and not really teach anyone, anything.

The United States is commonly known as “No-Vacation Nation” (Thompson, 2012) because Americans typically prioritize work over studies and family. (1)Although people in America take fewer vacations than any nation in the world, socioeconomics may be a reason for why employees focus more on work than research and relationships in the American culture. "There is simply no evidence that working people to death gives you a competitive advantage" (Pawlowski, 2011). (2)As a citizen of the United States and one who has often fallen prey to these ideals, the trend to overwork has been an affliction to overcome. Family and scholarly efforts have been sacrificed, but over the past year or two, I have made a conscious effort to alter my “live to work”

Many people in today’s society find themselves guilty of believing the common misconception that money can buy happiness. They go to school to become a doctor, lawyer, or other high paying job, with money and social status as their only incentives. Many will find that they have fallen into a trap, when they start earning their large salary, but still are not happy. While there were many messages present throughout Studs Terkels Working: a graphic adaptation, the most important reoccurring message seemed to be that having pride and dignity as well as working at a job that fulfills one’s life passion or is simply enjoyable are more important qualities than earning a large salary and having a high rank on the social ladder. The interaction of

The Counterculture movement had a big impact on workers in the 1960s. Women and Mexican American workers started to fight for their rights and the work ethic was significantly different in between the two groups of people. By comparing the ideas of work ethic from the 1960’s and today we can define how work ethic has evolved through the years. The 1960’s was a decade

This is a case study on A New Work Ethic written by James Sheehy a human resources manager. According to the Business Dictionary (2011) ethic is define as the basic concepts and fundamental principles of right human conduct. It includes study of universal values such as the essential equality of all men and women, human or natural rights, obedience to the law of land, concern for health and safety and, increasingly, also for the natural environment.

Employees are at work, but are they actually engaged in their jobs? In October 2013, The Gallup Organization conducted a survey with 230,000 full-time and part-time workers in 142 countries which consisted of 12 questions. According to Gallup’s latest findings, 87% of workers are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” and are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces (O'Boyle & Harter, 2013, p. 11). Most studies have broken the various types of workers into two groups, engaged and disengaged, but Gallup’s study has broken it down even further. They have determined that there are three types of employees: engaged, not engaged and actively disengaged (O'Boyle & Harter, 2013). The terms actively disengaged or not engaged are not

Since work is where we spend the most time outside of our homes, it is no surprise that workplace romance is becoming more prevalent. Many studies suggest that many people now meet romantic partners at work (Binetti 153). In the work-oriented culture of the day, “office romances and related topics of sex and privacy have become important issues confronted by most employers” (Wilson, Filosa, and Fennel 78). “A well-drafted, carefully implemented and widely disseminated corporate policy regarding fraternization among employees can provide substantial legal protection to employers” (Wilson, Filosa, and Fennel, 85). Employers need to determine what type of limitation they want and then figure out the best way to implement it. Policies need to include precise definitions of what conduct is discouraged, prohibited, or limited. Employers also must consider the consequences for those who violate the policies. Employers should also be sure that all employees have been made aware of the policies and understand the policies (Wilson, Filosa, and Fennel 86).