Working Long Hours And Its Effect On Family Life

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.

Work-life balance has been a popular topic for employees across all age and occupations for years, representing a rising concern of contemporary human resource management and labor policies. This topic has attracted the attention from the millennium generation, who is stepping into the market and beginning to grow a career. Therefore considering the increasing demand, well-designed workforce planning with diverse scheduling options offered to employees appears to be extra credits for most companies. This research paper aims to communicate the positive effects of four-day workweek, and providing support for why employers should adopt this schedule for employees and themselves through 1) introducing background and history of four-day workweek as a work schedule option and 2) demonstrating benefits of four-day workweek from both employer and employees’ perspectives.

     One of the more interesting aspects that Peiss mentions about the change in the demographics of the labor force directly relates to the way leisure time is spent. Peiss mentions many statistics that show how the working woman was quickly refusing household work and moving to the factory or office position. More specifically, a study of 370 working mothers showed 70 percent of them to be employed in domestic and personal service while the vast majority of their daughters worked in stores, offices, and factories (Cheap Amusements, 39). The significance of this change lies in the resulting change in attitude about leisure time. Now, a clearer distinction between time spent at work and

For factory workers, their working conditions were usually dangerous, which resulted in high accident rates. They worked twelve hours six days a week. Factory workers had little rights. Because of the surplus in workers, factory owners could easily replace injured, dead, or disobedient workers. So Progressives advocated on better conditions. They pushed for an eight-hour workday, a ban on child labor, and government regulation of working conditions. Slowly, skilled artisans and factory workers alike found themselves replaced by machinery. Because it was so

by the 1800 the average workday was 11.4 hours worker became very tired and more likely to get hurt on the job or work accidents mine factory machines had rapidly and there was kids working in there and they were not fit to do that and they would often get hurt. or they would get hurt all the time because of lack of sleep. they would be dozing off and fall and get hurt.

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

Everyone enjoys material things, whether they want a brand new car or even a phone; these items do not provide any necessity for survival, yet they make people’s lives much easier, and even more

There aren't many affluent individuals and numerous destitute individuals. The wages of laborers and working individuals climbed moderately between the mid-1970s and the end of the twentieth century. The infrastructure of this country has been severely strained, included are the streets, sewer frameworks, water supply, and utility lines. The middle class find it extremely hard to find affordable housing. Urban life is becoming more difficult there has been a rise in violent crime.

This report is about how materialism has been around people since prehistoric. According to this article adapted from James B. In Twittchell’s book, it is stated that even though Materialism is a social illness, it may also serve more positive functions in the modern world (1). In this piece, the author tells us that materialism has been spread around the world. For example, nowadays people from many countries like to buy more and more stuffs. Now; for instance, we have a materialism culture, and commercialism helps to increase this kind of lifestyle. Moreover, there is a stereotype that portrays women as the most consumers; however, historians has contradicted this by saying that “in pre-industrial world men were the chief hunter-gatherers” (390). From my point of view and based on this article, I consider that materialism does not bring any kind of positive functions in our world; on the contrary, I think that nowadays materialism is

Hunger for luxury items and people’s strife for the brands and items they associate with being beyond reach is paramount for this system. It is this drive for items one can’t have that the author feels is one of the benefits of consumerism. He declares, “…the aspiration of the poor to

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

People around the country are living in a very hard economic crisis that they have experienced since 2008. This difficult situation has created circumstances that cause people to lose their jobs and companies taking the options of laying off employees, creating a big impact in many families around the country. This situation has not improved at all in the last three years, which makes it very hard for anyone to find a job. The consequences for all these changes are affecting families’ lives in different ways emotionally, socially, and financially. According to the United States Department of

Factory workers in eighteenth and nineteenth century England typically worked extremely long hours with a meager amount of time for breaks (Spielvogel 571). This is a direct violation of article 24 in the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights which states that “everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours” (UN, Art. 24). Discussing these violations are important due to how the quality of life of these workers decreased during these years. Factory workers “spent all the light of day at work and came home with little energy, space, or light” to do anything (Effects of the Industrial Revolution). Undoubtedly, this environment led to

In the early twentieth century, labors used to work many hours more than they do today. There were also many fights and striks among various industries asking for shorter workdays at that time. As a result, today we have the eight-hour workdays, and I think we should maintain it in this way.

Consumerism is the center of American culture. Americans tend to confuse their wants with their needs. With new advances in technology, as well as the help of advertisers, people are provided with easy access to new products that seem essential to their everyday life, even though they have survived this long without them. People cannot live without food, clothing, and shelter. But realistically, according to people's different lifestyles, more than food, clothing, and shelter are needed. Most people need to work to survive. Unless a job is either in their own home, or within walking distance, a means of transportation is needed. Whether it be a vehicle, money for a taxi-cab, or a token for a ride on the subway, money must be spent