Work can have different meanings for everyone. Each of those meanings are the result of factors ranging from feelings to actual life needs or requirements. Upon first inspection, people seem to want work specifically for money; however, money or income is actually used to acquire goods or pay for services that ultimately generate happiness. People also enjoy work for a feeling of personal satisfaction, personal achievement, and the pursuit of personal development. Work can give people social status and respect in their communities while others get companionship and camaraderie with other co-workers. Still others work to make a contribution to their community. Work is interwoven into everyone’s lives and can become a part of a worker’s identity.
While each of these factors which contribute to the meaning of work are good, there are many ways for work to potentially dehumanize, oppress or manipulate workers. One way work oppresses workers is through the threat of unemployment. Unemployment can have many harmful effects on the worker including loss of self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. Workers tend to use work to express themselves. Separation from work can cause an inability to express themselves. This causes workers to be at the mercy of employers.
Employers may even be able to require workers to perform jobs that do not serve any benefit except income. These jobs could be very mechanical and artificial in nature. An example is seen in assembly lines where a worker’s only job is to attach a screw or affix a decal on a product. This job refuses to allow the worker’s ingenuity or ability to create to flourish. These routine focused jobs force workers to act like robots who passively do their jobs and collect a paycheck. Ultimately, these workers lose their autonomy as individuals.
Employers can dehumanize workers by paying low wages when there are no other jobs available. Workers are forced to accept any job available even though the work entailed is difficult, might require special training or is dangerous in nature. The workers are so desperate to attain a job to provide for their families they will demean or reduce their self-esteem. The loss of self-esteem can lead to depression and stress which causes the productivity of workers to decrease which could lead to an injury in dangerous jobs.
I believe only one harmful effect may be avoidable while the others are hard to avoid. The harmful effect of the assembly worker’s robotic job may be alleviated through variety of tasks. Maybe the assembly line could institute a rotation of tasks to ensure no worker stays at the same station for an inordinate amount of time. The threat of unemployment is not one so easily remedied. To many workers, this effect is mentally generated and not a result of the employer. I do recognize few occasions when the employer uses a scare tactic, but I do not believe this practice is commonplace. Lastly, supply and demand can have terrible effects on the wage and job duty ratio. This is a mechanic of business and the free market. Minimum wage standards only help places where they can be instituted. Workers in other countries do not get the same right to a minimum wage as those in the United States.
Overall, I believe the meaning of work stems from personal values. I believe one works to provide income to feed and provide for their families. Once those needs are met, people use work to provide a means to achieve satisfaction, social status and sometimes, even respect. Those who have achieved those goals often choose to serve their communities or use work for companionship and camaraderie. Work has become such an institution in our lives that we no longer seem to be able to have life without it.
+++++
Works Cited
Desjardins, Joseph. An Introduction to Business Ethics. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.