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One thing that is curious question to me is how much work is actually necessary? On top of that how much work is actually meaningful? I am a process server and a legal courier, but the majority of my job could be and has been replaced by digital means. Morally that is also better because as the job becomes more digital less paper is used as mail between law firms. Its important to talk about what "work" is because a farmer going to work on his own farm that he's owned the majority of his life is different than a person who goes to work at an office for an employer. The same thing can be said for meaningful jobs that provide something to society itself and just busy work type jobs that keep things going, but don't really add anything meaningful.
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Oct 18, 2014 17:38
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 07:57 |
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Helsing posted:Also when we're discussing why some people really enjoy working I don't think we can separate that enjoyment from the way society at large views work. People want to do something that think is prestigious and dignified. So when society makes 'work' an important value and ascribes great respect to people in important jobs who work long hours this is going to increase the attraction of work, regardless of how enjoyable or tedious the underlying 'labour' involved is. That banking exec who works 70 hour weeks and doesn't spend much time with his family might be working overtime because he loves the sense of validation he gets rather than because he actually enjoys spending all that time in the office rather than with his kids. I think its a sense of accomplishment and having a set goal in mind, I don't know about bankers, but when you're working as a barista there is no overall goal to your job, its the same every day all day. There is no goal besides to make the next coffee and get through the day and that means there is never any sense of accomplishment beyond getting to go home at the end of your shift. My experience with working with people is that the ones that work really long hours don't enjoy their work any more than anyone else, they just don't have anything to go home to or anything that they want to go home to. This is just my own experience, but so far in life I have never had a job that gave me a sense of accomplishment, the work I have to do for the job never ends, there are no projects that are finished. Money is not a good enough reward to provide a sense of accomplishment because its too far abstracted. On the other hand I've done plenty of work that I didn't receive any money for that I had a huge sense of accomplishment when finishing because at the end there was a tangible thing that I could look at and go, wow I'm really happy that is done because now I've grown a pumpkin for Halloween or food that I get to eat, or a website that I can put up on the internet. There's also the third idea that people are more driven by a sense of purpose regardless of what that purpose might for the banker it might be to make money, for the farmer to have a good harvest that provides good nourishing food for his or her community. Giving people a sense of purpose and then the means (a job) to carry out that purpose might be more important than validating and providing status to a job. Teachers and social workers are the lowest paid jobs with almost no social reward, but there are still teachers and social workers that go home at the end of the day satisfied with their work. quote:Another thing to consider may be that our society has a severely impoverished social life outside of work. For instance, when somebody makes a statement like this one: I also want to respond to this because I kind of agree with what you're saying, I don't think that people need social interaction to feel fulfilled, but when your entire interaction with people in general is having to smile and pretend you're someone's best friend as a barista thats super loving exhausting and that can be applied to a lot of customer facing jobs, having to be fake in social situations is absolutely one of the most emotionally tiring and least rewarding things you can do. It can also lead to the other actions where you just don't want to deal with people so you play video games or watch netflix when you get home because dealing with other human beings has become the last thing you want to do with your free time. Doorknob Slobber fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2014 19:29
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