How Do Humans Define Work?

Hard work has gone unappreciated and avoided by society, as the toil associated with it are rather unpleasant. However, in avoiding hard work, society manages to avoid the many satisfactions that accompany it. In Home of the Free, Wendell Berry discusses how although he is a novelist, poet, and essayist, Berry’s greatest satisfaction comes from the labor he does on his farm. Berry states how society has moved past the struggles of physical labor to avoid labor’s uncomfortable difficulties; thus, society has rejected the unique satisfactions of labor that he finds fulfilling. I agree wholeheartedly with his interpretation that labor and its unique qualities can derive much satisfaction. I find the satisfactions of labor as the most fulfilling

Instead, Holmes ends his argument by concluding that that humans should focus on the concept that “ meaningful labor is done as an act of worship, not unto man, but unto the Lord.” As a final point, work has now transitioned further into the world and it’s impacting humans not necessarily in a positive light, but impacting the world negatively with the many occurring difficulties and changes that come with working. According to Derek Thompson’s “A World Without Work”, Derek makes assumptions about robotic-fueled declines in the work field. Derek goes on about how people would feel if these changes to occur and how it would take a toll on society if we were suddenly removed from our jobs to be replaced by technology. This outlook takes another aspect of our future and what our life could look like. Derek continues his article by stating that “The paradox of work is that many people hate their jobs, but they are considerably more miserable doing nothing.” The thought of a robot replacing a human is more to process about then one would believe. People who despise their jobs can’t even wrap their head around the fact that sooner or later the possibility of them being replaced is huge.

“He worked himself to death, finally, and precisely at 3:00 am Sunday morning.” Although humans need a purpose in life, those who live on the clock often find himself being controlled by the clock, perishing in the process. In “The Company Man,” Ellen Goodman criticizes Phil’s workaholic attitude to showcase her disapproval toward our society based on work.

According to Carnegie, it was naïve to think that “work for work’s sake” brings satisfaction and he did not believe that “laboring for each other” is inherent to man’s nature. He suggested it would be a waste of energy to try to “bend the universal tree of humanity.” Carnegie believed this “tree” had produced “the best and most valuable of all that humanity has yet accomplished” through “Individualism,

Roszak makes a point in his essay about jobs being our salvation, where he describe there is no end to a working life. Roszak describes the waste of time in people’s jobs and that most employees don’t even put all of their effort into them. He figures

Overall, Marlow believes that work is highly beneficial to a person. When someone works, they are kept sane, and are kept honest. Not only are they more sensible, and productive, it makes one a better person in the long run, unlike the ridiculous Europeans overcome by greed and laziness.

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

In Timothy Keller's Every Good Endeavor, we read that at times work can become fruitless and even pointless. Work is a good thing and that is how God created it, but the sinfulness of this world can disguise and twist its goodness. Sin degenerates every aspect of life, the soul, mind, and body, causing nothing to work as it was originally designed. The two greatest elements in life that sin has corrupted are love and work. Just as love under sin can be painful and life draining, so can work. Work under sin can be a painful toil as well. Fruitlessness is the production of frustration and lack of fulfillment at work. Conflicts, unfortunate circumstances, human errors and poor results in our field of work will weigh us down with the thought that

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

Working set people free from their stressed, frustrated, debts, loneliness, and lead them to a happy life. Even rich people need a job because doing nothing made them bored and could not have peace in their life. According to Honore said “I have come to believe that people without jobs are not free” (page.137). It is totally true that “people without jobs are not free” because people without a job became homeless, street gang members, and slave. Also, people without jobs became to do suicide because they felt their life was empty and felt depressed.

Hardy begins the chapter by Hardy giving his readers a brief overview of his employment and education history. I found this information helpful because it gave me a better understanding of his growing interest the philosophy of work, and what led him to write the book. Next, he addressed the question “why do we work?” and explained that the answer might seem obvious at first glance – but there are numerous underlying factors that need to be examined. Some of the factors he brought up were very intriguing to me because these are things that I, like many others, have not really thought about in much depth. There is obviously a need for work in any economy that plans to grow and flourish, so why not take a closer look into the motivational forces that drive humans to work. For example, he brings up a study done in regard to work vs. play and the intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards gained from each. The majority of interviewed participants reported that

The concept of labor directly corresponds with the condition of life. Outlining a biological process that is necessary for human existence, labor takes a circular character that creates no permanence as its efforts are consumed immediately, thus continuously renewed in order to maintain life. Hannah Arendt refers to this notion of human existence as animal laborans. As long as human beings are engaged in the activity of labor, there is no distinguishing between the members of mankind.

What he meant by this is that people must achieve their full potential as human beings and that nothing else is worth more that becoming the best you can be. Theory Y employees spend their working lives striving for self-actualisation, which is the ultimate source of motivation. It stimulates the desire for more once experienced.

"Work" is a positive thing for many people. To some people, it may be described as a place to escape from the kids, or even a time consumption thing for a single or retired person, but most importantly it is what we do in order to provide for our families and ourselves. Work is something that we all will experience at one time or another during our lives.

Work takes on greater importance in a society where people believe that they can master the material world and shape their own destinies, and less where they believe that they can not. An Ancient Greek philosopher said that the only stability in the world was within one's mind or soul, where ideas were secure from the unending changes that took place in the material world. In Ancient Greece, philosophers believed that a person's thoughts and ideas were more important than that person's work and that work in the material world lacked permanence. For the ancient Greeks, the status of particular occupations depended on the degree of freedom a person had, the perceived moral integrity of the occupation, and the amount of mental and physical work it required. Today we tend to feel that working in an office is better than working in a coal mine, regardless of which worker makes more money. Our language suggests that it is a privilege to work sitting down.