Workaholism is rampant in American workplaces. Many professionals are so passionate about their careers that they continually accept new projects even when their calendars are already full and they have not had a day off in months. This inclination towards perfectionism is a strong sign that someone may be prone to workaholism. Work is hardly a substitute for things such as family, friends, or quality leisure time to relax and renew oneself. Through its growth in both wealth and power, America has developed a culture that is highly successful in advancing science, technology, and the economy, but by doing so, it has undermined the part of culture that provides its identity and the norms and values of daily life.
All employees are expected to attribute a certain level of commitment to their careers. It is important to understand the difference between workaholism and work engagement. Workaholics are best conceptualized by their attitude toward work, and not by the number of hours they spend at work. Today, a person typically becomes identified as a workaholic once his need for work has become so excessive that it creates a noticeable interference with his health, personal happiness, and interpersonal relations.
Historically, people went to work because they had to. After work, they would have leisure time. Now, with new management techniques, improved production, innovative inventory control methods, telecommunications, and other technological advancements, many people have moved their work into their homes. By eliminating the separation between the ‘work place’ and the ‘leisure territory’, the boundaries between work and leisure became blurred. Some people enjoy their work so much that it has filled the functions normally reserv...
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...e must be a homogeneous element that is recognized by the world as an exchangeable form of wealth. This element happens to be human labor, which is measure with money, or capital, which is then exchanged for our needs and wants. In America’s modern, capitalist society, work is necessary for survival.
Many people find the idea of leisure uncomfortable, arguing that leisure is not just an inevitable consequence of our free time, but idleness or laziness. They fear that if they take time away, even for a moment, all of their hard work will be lost. Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, argues that idleness was the enemy not of work but of leisure. (McInerny) The best way we can view leisure is a recharging of our minds and bodies for work. It is a positive reality, which allows us to look beyond the cares and anxieties of our daily world, allowing us to become more human.
My own personal philosophy of leisure has been shaped by past and present activities I do for leisure and why I do them. To me, leisure is the sense of being free from external stressors that I face in my life such as school or work. The positive outcomes from partaking in leisure are generally overlooked and often underestimated. Leisure affects our emotions, our physical and mental health, and aids in the creation of relationships. In my own personal life, I have done and still participate in leisure as a way to sooth myself or unwind from the stress of school or work. The release of pent up emotions and energy for individuals helps their relationships with others and their overall health as well. When stress is released, an individual is
Marks, L. (2006). The Loss of Leisure in a Culture of Overwork. Spirit of Change Magazine.
Tim Kreider’s “The ‘Busy’ Trap” from The New York Times (June 30, 2012) explores the different worlds of both, the busy and the free. His article evaluates and persuades the American working class to stop for a second and reassess their constantly busy lifestyles. His knowledge comes from his own and other’s life experiences. Relating on a personal level, Kreider encourages his audience to recognize that being busy may make them feel important, but they are sacrificing all their valuable time life has given them. In fact, he influences them to think about how much stress their work is, and how it most likely won’t amount to anything. He does this through logos, providing personal anecdotes and common knowledge; ethos, demonstrating that he
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
“In the last twenty years the amount of time Americans have spent at their jobs has risen steadily. Each year the change is small, amounting to about nine hours, or slightly more than one additional day of work (Schor, 1). Juliet B. Schor’s The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure explores the decline of leisure time in American professionals and laborers as a result of an increase in working time. In comparison to our European counterparts, American workers are now working close to 320 more hours yearly. Schor highlights the fact that American workers are choosing to work multiple jobs contributing to less leisure time due to longer working hours. In conclusion the book depicts the idea that the materialistic nature of Americans results in them choosing to work more so that they can spend more.
Americans have little to no time off each week. According to the article, “Overworked America: 12 Charts That Will Make Your Blood Boil”,some countries give workers 37-48 hours off each week. Other countries give workers 24-36 hours off each week.Americans in comparison have barely any hours off(Gilson).Even on the weekends , Americans find their lives consumed by work. A survey given to employed email users showed that 50% of them checked their work email on the weekends and 34% check work email while on vacation(Gilson).Americans cannot find a medium between their work lives and their personal lives.
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
Commodity fetishism has blinded people into believing that value is a relationship between objects, when in reality, it is a relationship between people. This in turn, prevents people from thinking about the social labor condition workers have to endure; they only care and value about how much objects costs. They think that the source of the value comes from the cost, but it truly comes from labor (FC). Through this objectification stems alienation and estrangement. Marx starts with the assumption that humans have an intrinsic quality. As human beings, individuals like to be create and manipulate his or her environment. Creating is a part of people; therefore, people their being into their creations. However, Marx postulates that capitalism and specialized division of labor separates that working class from their creations in four ways- through alienation from the product, the labor process, one’s species-being, and humanity itself. The working class suffers through this hostility to make create more wealth for owners of factories. They get trapped in a cycle to make products for profit, but as automation advances, machines begins to take over people’s jobs; therefore, there less employment opportunities available, which in turn allows factory owners to decrease wages and exploit and devalue the working class (EL). In the The Poverty
Many individuals would define leisure as time free from paid work, domestic responsibilities, and just about anything that one would not do as part of their daily routine. Time for leisure and time for work are both two separate spheres. The activities which people choose to do on their spare time benefit their own personal interests as well as their satisfactions. While some people may enjoy one activity, others pay not. Leisure is all about personal interests and what people constitute having a good time is all about. Some may say that the process of working class leisure can be seen to contribute their own subordination as well as the reproduction of capitalist class relations. Self-produced patterns of working class leisure can lead to resistance to such reproduction. This leads to social class relations and inequalities, and the fact that it they can never be completely reproduced in the leisure sphere. This film Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community, gives some examples of the role of leisure within a capitalist society dealing with issues such as class inequalities, and how they are different among various societies.
According to classical Marxism, capitalism introduces a complimentary and contradictory relationship between wage labor and capital. This relationship is established through linking the ...
...society now classifies leisure as simply ‘free time.’ Time away from work or school, no matter how it is enjoyed, is more broadly defined as leisure today.
Communism, socialism, and capitalism are the three basic forms of economical systems, each evident in the world. Although Karl Marx is portrayed as the father of communism, Marx is able to provide a substantial amount of information about the capitalistic world. In his work, “Capital (1867)”, Marx discusses the nature of commodities, wages, and the relationship between a worker and the capitalist economic system. As a result, Marx portrays workers as human beings who have been exploited in order to maximize production and profit in a capitalistic society. Although Karl Marx wrote “Capital (1867)” over a century ago, Marx’s arguments concerning the various uses of human labor, commodities, and values, have remained relevant in the United States
Through out history money, wealth and capital have dictated a way of life to the masses. Wealth dictated the lives that the rich lived and the lives of the poor that worked for and surrounded them. In some cultures your class could never be escaped in life, you had to wait for your next incarnation, while in other cultures the idea of wealth transcended a life and allowed for growth from one class to another. This is the reality of a capitalist society that was first discussed by Karl Marx in the 19th century.
What do people think about their life purpose? Most of us think about life that is studying hard in order to get a wonderful job, working hard, and getting married. They have dreamed of one day having an eternal vacation for themselves and not having to work anymore. The traditional people around the world consider that overworking is an essential condition for the early stage of their life. Especially in most of Asian countries, the average workweek is 48 hours. According to the fulltime employment, people work 35 to 40 hours per week to be defined as full-time. If more than that number, that should be considered overworking. Overworking is an important issue because that can lead to some serious consequences. Thus, we should consider work-life balance more seriously.
The study of leisure and recreation exist to improve the quality of people’s lives. Leisure is a key part of our lives. When we involve ourselves in leisure activities that satisfies us. We improve in creativity and self-control through these activities. We also get the sense of freedom, achievement and confidence. Leisure gives us the opportunity to enjoy new experiences and develop new skills. In the field of study of leisure and recreation, it focuses on the variety of recreational activities. Those activities that are involved in leisure tend to be rewarding to one’s health and the community. Leisure activities are chosen by every individual, the activities can be done where people feel more comfortable with people you enjoy surrounding