Hard Work Vs American Work Hours

As Samuel Gompers notes, “I maintain that this is a true proposition- that men under the short-hour system not only have opportunity to improve themselves, but to make a greater degree of prosperity for their employers”(2). Men who are overworked have “lives to work instead of working to live” (2) which is accurate. They do the same thing every day having a routine and no time devoted into bettering themselves and having thoughts on ideas or anything. The author is Samuel Gompers and the intended audience is working men, more specifically those who hire the working men. To make them realize what they are doing by assigning so many hours to men. This is a primary document as it may have been composed during the midst of a time when men were constantly overworked.

Before introducing the workplace issues related to the development of four-day workweek, a clear definition of this schedule is needed. According to Department of Labor (n.d.), “A workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, or seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The workweek does not have to coincide with the calendar week, but instead it may begin on any day of the week and at any hour of the day.” It might be the “four-day, 32-hour workweek – more leisure, less work” (Wernette 1), or the “three-day, 40 hour, compressed work week” that Vega

There is a woman I know by the name Arla Finney. She has a full time job, she is a full time mother, and a part time student. Out of seven days a week, she hardly has any time for relaxation, not even on the weekends. She raises four young women to the best of her abilities as well as working her tail off to make sure they have entirely everything they essentially need. Often times she feels that she has to work over her regular time just to make ends meet when they have already been met. As far as free time goes, I’m not sure she even knows what that is. The only free time allotted to her is at night when she lays her head on her pillow. Yes, the woman I speak of is my mother. Another overdosed with work American. Many days I can see it in her eyes how exhausted and stressed out she is. Lucky for her she has a daughter like me and I try to help out in every single way that I can. But not everyone is that fortunate. It may not be a widespread subject in the news, but an excessive percentage of people won’t acknowledge that they are overworked Americans. Their stress levels are intensifying, their families are dwindling away from each other, and for some even their well-being is weakening. Some people are working so much and scarcely have anything to show for it. While people need a job to make a living, too many Americans are working entirely too much.

When employed labor is involved, productivity in terms of time becomes important, because the employer generally pays the worker in terms of time. For many jobs, then a shift from task-orientation to timed labor occurs, as the laborer’s time becomes the employer’s money. Thus, a separation between work and leisure occurs, as

What’s more, the author explained the transformation of the meaning in the term “workaholism” and poses the different working attitude between Americans and Europeans again (Clausen 121). The word “workaholism” seems like

for better things and places somewhere else is rational in all of us, but should not overwhelm us to the point that where we are presently may be better and is the place where we belong and truly makes us happy. (Donkin 298-99). The drive for economic growth has led to disastrous results as workers have less leisure time, and companies have developed a dog eat dog persona leading to stock market crashes, employee contractions, and other deleterious effects. (Donkin 303-07). Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American wrote about how work has minimized the leisure time for most working people in America. (Donkin 302). The great Mexican artist illustrated in his murals that the search of a better life ended up as being confined as prisoners of the exploitation within the automobile factory (Donkin 301). Computers and new technology has changed the way we live is comparable to the change brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Cell phones, the internet, tablets voice mail, and e-mail has transformed the way people communicate and has changed the landscape of how people work. (Donkin 305-07). Martin Luther King Jr. warned that while technology was advancing, the spiritual and moral ways people are treat each other were being diametrically opposed to each.

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

An increase in the number of vacation days or limiting the hours worked in a week by the government may increase the quality of life by providing more leisure time. However, the overall quality of life would struggle because in this day and age one has to have money to have a good time. Recently after much debate, the French eliminated their 35-hour workweek limit with strong justifiable arguments by both parties. The law was first put in place in 2000 due impart to the unemployment rate that was around 10% at the time. Ideally with shorter workweeks companies would have to hire more employees to maintain current outputs. Although, in recent years it has become apparent that instead of lowering the unemployment rate, it has remained near

One’s ethnicity or cultural background causes a certain work ethic. In the chapter Rice Paddy’s and Math Tests Malcom Gladwell shows this cause and effect. In Gladwell’s text it says rice farmers worked year around. When they were not farming they were making baskets and hats to sell at the market. Gladwell gives another example of a group of hunters and gatherers who gather food during the warm weather, but when it’s cold they hibernate like bears .Many of these people starved to death in the winter.

What is your response when someone asks you for your opinion about overworked Americans? Schabner states “Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world.” In other words, Schabner is saying that compared to other countries America is so high up in the working world that a majority of our people are workaholics (Schabner Americans). Even though some argue Americans are lazy and depend on the government, Americans are overworked because overworking causes physical and mental damage, and the more hours a person works the less productive they are.

One of the many things that make Utopia an ideal society is how their work habits differ from the world we live in. All citizens in Utopia work on farms along learning a useful skill that they learn at an earlier age through apprenticeship. Children learn trades such as blacksmithing weaving, carpentry, or tailoring. But if a young boy shows a desire and proficiency in another skill, arrangements are made for that young man to learn under another apprenticeships. The only citizens that are exempted from manual labor, are those who show great intellectual potential; these members assume jobs such as ambassadors and priests. In European society, people are expected to work unreasonable hours each day. Meanwhile in Utopia, their day is already planned out. They only work six, three before lunch, and then 3 after, the sleep for eight

The 4 day work week is not a new idea. It is one that has had its share of controversies over the years. Introduced in the 1970’s the idea of the 4 days work week has been making a comeback as of lately. There are several issues to look at here. One of the main statements in regards to it is that productivity will decrease because of fatigue. A 10 hour work day is too long. On the flipside, another of the main issues pointed out by proponents is that productivity will increase because you will have a workforce with higher morale. In this paper, we will discuss

Do you always feel like you are rushed for time? Working your whole day away and never having time to yourself? Do you wish you could set your own schedule each week? Well, the time has come where many companies human resources departments have changed their ways of thinking about the 40 hour work week. Many human resource departments have now began giving their employees a more flexible work schedule as long as their work is being completed.

Let’s introduce to an author name Laszlo Bock, who wrote a book about “Work Rules! That will transform how you live and lead.” This author is an American businessman who was formerly the Senior Vice President of People Operation at Google. “Laszlo Bock was born in Romania in the year of 1972”. (Battelle)He started working at the age of 14, he worked at many jobs as follow before starting to work with Google.

Germany and the United States approach work in different ways. What causes differing work ethics? In order to understand why, we first need to look at several factors that differentiate Germany and the United States. This paper will examine the differing economies, political structures, cultural differences, and finally, motivational factors of employees in both countries to explain the differences in work ethic in the restaurant industry and in some cases, more specifically, the fast food restaurant industry.