In the modern society the act of being employed, going to work is not optional. In order to facilitate having any of the things that people want, whether it is a material object or attending events and travel, then one must have access to a monetary source and for the average person that is having a job. Some people see having to work as something that people should do without exception; it represents your place as a productive member of society. Others argue that work is no more or less than a necessary evil that causes people to become dependent on money that they can no longer live without. That being said how people perceive work and its place in their lives varies across this diverse workface of the modern era. The best way of looking at the issues, in the end, is to see work as something that one must do to earn a living, but no one should settle for any job that simply pays the bills, when they may have the desire and potential to be successful in other areas, if not then they may be left unfulfilled mentally and emotionally as the years roll by.
In the history of civilization working every single day was a necessity of life. Long before other people hired you do jobs for them, just day to day life was a matter of endless chores. Farmers in the past and today who work from sun-up to sun-down are a prime example. As time passed and the role of machines increased until no longer worked at home, per say. They were now beholden to another entity, where one earns and spends those earnings on their own and their dependent’s upkeep. Many today would argue that what is called work today is a far cry of what the word truly means. For example hardworking men and women on fishing vessels would look at the work of receptionists in an air conditioned building as hardly being work at all. Many look at the difficulty of work as a definition of what work is. Matt Crawford, in the article, “The Case for Working with Your Hands,” that shows like, “Deadliest Catchanother “Dirty Jobs,” shows all kinds of grueling work” (338). Today there are all sorts of different jobs both in all sorts of disciplines, some more lucrative than others, where there is a career path for just about everyone.
“Even the dullest work is to most people less painful that idleness” (Russell, 331). Human beings are not meant to be entirely inactive. Not being involved in the world can have a depressive and disheartening effect on people .Human beings, in many ways, crave challenges of some kind to overcome to maintain a health outlook on their life. Even when the job is not necessarily their favorite position, it still bolsters worker ambition, goals and prevents people’s mind and bodies from simply sitting idly. There is a saying that it is always good to have many different skills to fall back on, as stated by Russell, “the exercising of a skill.” (332). Doing a job that may neither be that lucrative or fulfilling can, if nothing else, provide the worker with a large set of differing skills and expertise in a varied area.
It is true that having a job and going to work on a regular basis is a requirement of survival in the modern era. Some might argue that they cannot find work, but some argue that there are no excuses for that in the United States because there are always jobs, some that are considered, like computer work is, “neck up,” as well as, physical labor that is considered, “neck down” (337). Being unemployed can lead to homelessness and a level of poverty difficult to escape. So everyone must have some kind of income just to make certain they can keep their head above water in a, very modern, questionable economy in the United States. The some people find their life path and the work they want to do early in life and are able to follow a course of action that leads them to the lucrative dream job, others may go to school for years to become a professional in a specific field. In either case, these people may find that the dream job was harder to get than they thought and just because one has a degree does not guarantee a position in the major you chose. Once someone is in a field for a long enough time they are judged by society and often by themselves as being less capable and adequate because of a stigma associated with certain career fields. People disparage restaurant workers for having an easy and mundane job, as explained by Mike Rose in a 2004 article, “remember order and monitor them, attend to ever-changing environment, juggle the flow of work and make decisions on the fly” (337). But if they tried it themselves they may find that it is a different story. All too often people get stuck in a job they need, but are not happy with. That being said, work is a necessity, but sometimes it has to be about just paying your bills, keeping that roof over their head and being accountable for their own lives, however, that does not mean that whatever job one has now, should be the job they do for the rest of their lives. Follow one’s dream and life goals, but a having a job is non-optional.
There are far too many people in the world who do are not happy with the course of their lives, feel like something is missing and they are genuinely unfulfilled. So many people fail to reach the goals that they may have had for themselves long ago. Everyone has heard somebody say that their work is not like work because they love what they do. Unfortunately, there is a very small portion of the population truly “living their dream.” That being said people should work to maintain their upkeep, but they should never give up on their loftier goals. It is more beneficial to look at the job one is doing as a means to an end and temporary necessity in order to get closer to the ultimate goal that will bring them fulfillment and happiness. We work for a living, but we must also work for life fulfillment. Everyone has dreams and wishes for what they want to do with their lives. We ask children as young as three and four years old, “what they want to be when they grow up? They may answer a doctor, actor, doctor, forearm, and very often a superhero. Of course these goals may change overtime. Everyone should aim for what they want most and take the actions to secure that goal. However, there is no excuse not to have a supplemental income that supports you while pursuing that dream, whether it is a minimum wage job or some obscure jobs, like seen on “Dirty Jobs,” that will pay those bills and allow one to be both hard worker and self-reliant, while still fulfilling the steps it takes to be dedicated for your actual career goals in the future.
WORK CITED
Russell, Bertrand. “Work” Work and Play. (1930): 331-336.
Rose, Mike. “Brain As Well As Brawn.” Work and Play. (2004): 336-338.
Crawford, Mathew. “The Case for Working with Your Hands.” Work and Play. (2009): 338.
