Alienation from the workplace is common among people in our society today. We must work to earn a living, and not everyone is fortunate enough to work at a job that is their passion. As a result of settling for employment in a field that may not be enjoyable, people may become resentful, lose motivation or even become mentally unstable. This is evident in the movies “Fight Club” and “Office Space”. The characters from each movie loathe their jobs, and they start to take a toll on the characters and lead them to dangerous activities. Although these examples are portrayed in fiction, it is possible for jobs to lead people into regrettable actions in reality. In the movie “Bread and Roses”, a group of janitors are tired of being treated unfairly and given low wages. The janitors eventually go on strike and protest against their unequal circumstances.
From experience, I can say that I have worked with a number of people who dislike their jobs, and do not work to their full potential. I understand that the career at hand may have gotten dull for people, and that they still work in order to support their families, get health benefits and pay bills. However, if a person does not enjoy what they are doing, is it worth the stress and anxiety? In “Shop Class as Soulcraft”, the author, Matthew Crawford explains that people are alienated from their jobs because they have lost their sense of pride in what they do. Crawford states that a large part of this is because people have to settle for jobs in offices or commercial chains and they feel as if their work is meaningless.
In “Soulcraft”, Crawford’s main argument is that today’s society is lacking in people who are self reliant and could make their own things or fix appliances. We let...
... middle of paper ...
...we should forget about being alienated from our work as long as there are no factors against us. Unless a job is taking a toll on us for the worst as it might of done for the characters in “Office Space” or “Fight Club”, then it should not be a problem. So what if we have an annoying coworker or two, it’s worth putting up with knowing that we are getting paid to work, even if we find a job boring, we should have the sense in the back of our minds that “we have it easy”.
Works Cited
1. Crawford, Matthew B. Shop Class As Soulcraft. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.
2. Hedges, Chris. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. New York, USA: Nation, 2012. Print.
3. Eidelson, Josh. "Fast Food Strikes Intensify in Seven Cities." Salon.com. N.p., 29 July 2013. Web.
4. Kucera, Barb. "Wal-Mart Has Perfected the Art of Union-Busting." Workday Minnesota. N.p., 26 Oct. 2008. Web.
“Don’t Blame the Eater” is an article by David Zinczenko that explains to Americans, specifically overweight young Americans, about the risks eating at fast food restaurants and its cause of affecting one’s health. In his article, he tries to address the issue about America’s food industries by using literal devices such as tone, logos, ethos, diction, and organization in order to spread his message. He begins his article by addressing the topic and as he continues writing, he supports his topic by writing about personal experience and moves onto the reasons why his topic in a serious issue. Although he shows an overall clear progress, he does tend to have a few problems with his writing that could be improved.
There are three articles that will be referenced during this analysis. The first article is taken from the mainstream media publication USA Today. “Wal-Mart takes hits on worker treatment: Lawsuits, unions slam megaretailer”(Armour, 2003) argues that Wal-Mart is coming under attack from critics who argue workers are underpaid, women are discriminate against, and illegal tactics are being deployed to kill unionization efforts. Armour (2003) states, “company officials say they don’t know why the attacks are coming now, and they also say the allegations are unfounded.” The next statement made during the article states that Wal-Mart employees agree with the statement. The author continues reporting on the issues at stake, but focuses mostly on how unions may be less relevant in today’s world. The article makes mention of both sides of the argument, but the rhetoric and terminology used leans towards the portrayal of Wal-Mart as a victim of biased attacks to further union interests in the market.
Section 1: Typically, we need a well-balanced meal to give us the energy to do day-to-day tasks and sometimes we aren’t able to get home cooked meals that are healthy and nutritious on a daily basis, due to the reasons of perhaps low income or your mom not being able to have the time to cook. People rely on fast food, because it’s quicker and always very convenient for full-time workers or anyone in general who just want a quick meal. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation argues that Americans should change their nutritional behaviors. In his book, Schlosser inspects the social and economic penalties of the processes of one specific section of the American food system: the fast food industry. Schlosser details the stages of the fast food production process, like the farms, the slaughterhouse and processing plant, and the fast food franchise itself. Schlosser uses his skill as a journalist to bring together appropriate historical developments and trends, illustrative statistics, and telling stories about the lives of industry participants. Schlosser is troubled by our nation’s fast-food habit and the reasons Schlosser sees fast food as a national plague have more to do with the pure presence of the stuff — the way it has penetrated almost every feature of our culture, altering “not only the American food, but also our landscape, economy, staff, and popular culture. This book is about fast food, the values it represents, and the world it has made," writes Eric Schlosser in the introduction of his book. His argument against fast food is based on the evidence that "the real price never appears on the menu." The "real price," according to Schlosser, varieties from destroying small business, scattering pathogenic germs, abusing wor...
People may wonder how this relates to transformational leadership. A leader that follows this theory is compassionate and caring towards the staff. An employee can’t love their job if they are fearful of their employer, or if they don’t agree with them. Here is where that quote comes into play. A person might love their career path, but that doesn’t mean they love their job. To be enjoyable, a job must have a happy work environment, and that includes a great and encouraging leader. Transformational leaders have high moral standards and values, and provide a vision and mission to their followers, thus followers have respect and admiration for their leader (Mittal & Dhar, 2015). If an employee feels that their leader cares about them, and wants the best for them, then that employee will enjoy going to work. If they enjoy going to work, then it won’t feel like their working, but instead will feel like they are doing what they love to do. This will allow the employee to go far beyond the normal expectations required of
A human being needs a few essential things to live happy and healthy according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which are: Self-actualization, esteem needs, social needs, security needs, and survival needs. Karl Marx introduced this in his passage as: alienation from self (losing your own identity) which is esteem needs, alienation from nature (completely forgetting that mother nature exists around us) which is survival needs, alienation of skill (having to leave behind your creativity and experience like they never existed) which is self actualization, and alienation from product (which means you did so little in its production that you’re just a little drop in the ocean) which is self- actualization. Believe it or not this still goes on today in most jobs. People don’t really look at it in that way we disguise it with the term “working for a living” but the truth is we make our own trap it is in the line we “live to work” some people haven’t really noticed but how often do you actually had time to do something for themselves, when was the last time you got home and the sun was still up, or actually went to a social gathering besides a club or a
...ish Fast-Food Strikes | National Review Online." National Review Online. National Review Online, 5 Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
People can learn to stand up for themselves or change a situation when someone or something at work has caused stress or unhappiness. A job challenge may get worse over time and usually doesn’t go away on its own. The sooner an individual begins to adapt in the situation, or in how he or she responds to it, the easier it will be to ...
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Perennial, 2002.
One of these problems that occurs in work is alienation. Alienation is defined as, “The Sense of meaninglessness and powerlessness that people experience when interacting with social institutions they consider
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.
In his study about psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work, Kahn have shown that there are three psychological engagement elements that can influence an individual’s behaviour in relation to their job function. The elements are 1) meaningfulness - rewards from engagement, 2) safety - higher willingness to engage, and 3) availability - readiness to engage (Kahn, 1990). Because of his work, Kahn is widely regarded as the pioneer of employee engagement and his findings are still engaged and found in many references about employee
Fast food made a gap between poor and rich wider, created the epidemics of obesity and transferred this cultural imperialism abroad. Eric Schlosser provides a lengthy list of charges but h combines then with the careful reasoning. His survey starts from California subdivisions where the business was born and continues to the industrial New Jersey where fast food is produced. In his book, Schlosser hangs out with teenagers who make fast foo...
Completing a task, whether it be mentally challenging or physically challenging, in order to reach a certain goal, is what defines work. When that work starts to bring in income for you, you can categorise that work as your career. Many people look at their job from a different angle in order to improve the satisfaction that they get from it. They try to find enjoyment out of their job in order to see it from a different angle and seek some enjoyment out of it. By definition, if you are getting any sort of pleasure from your work or you are completely satisfied with the way it’s going, if you are receiving income for the work then it cannot be considered as working. Throughout this essay, points will be made in order to back this up as well as stating ways in which pleasure can be found in your work by enforcing a positive workplace. By shining positive light into a workplace, we are able to increase the
Exhausted, bitter, and miserable is the way that many people feel when they wake up in the morning to get ready for work. Even the very thought of work puts some people in a bad mood. Others may not mind work but still do not look forward to going. It is a rare occasion to find someone who is completely satisfied with his or her career. However, for one man, work is bliss. In “Quality” by Galsworthy, Gessler, the shoemaker, is shown to be a man of integrity and of complete dedication to his work.
In every work place you will find employees who are happy with what they do and employees who are just there to complain and collect a paycheck. My topic for this discussion will cover job dissatisfaction.