I perceive work to be the mental or physical activity needed to accomplish a set goal. Working is done to achieve a certain purpose. Frederick Douglas, a 19th century statesman, orator, and writer once stated, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress". I have always believed that any work involves a conscious and physical effort to achieve a set goal or result.
I would say that there are always two kinds of work that is done. There is the collective work for the benefit of the group, and work that is done for self-advancement. One of the first kinds of work I ever committed was, of course, chores at home as a young child. Keeping my room clean, or washing dishes were some of the basic kinds of work I did, but as a youngster, I never really understood why I had to do it so often because I did not have my eye on the "end result", or rather, what I was achieving by doing these things. With everyone doing certain tasks in my household, it simply benefited everyone, and we could live in a clean and well-kept home, because a home without some sort of structure and cleanliness provides for another array of issues. The more individualistic kind of work is of course, work I did for money, so I could have it to waste on movies, eating out, buying cool gadgets, video games and music, etcetera, spending time with friends on weekends. That of course, morphs into working for other things like paying rent and bills, and money to travel, and invest in various ways as a young adult. Work committed in school and at college is done to achieve good grades that will allow you to move onto higher levels of education, but I have always worked in school to satisfy my urge to learning more and more about the world around me, and my personal want to be recognized as an intellectual.
Work is not something I was always excited about. Whether I was flipping burger patties at Burger King, or writing a 20 page paper on a certain topic for class, I was never thrilled, and just wanted the shift to be done, or fast forward time to the point where I am concluding the paper. Though, while still in college, thinking of my future, I would like to have a work that I will not despise and have to bear to earn a living. My nightmare is to wake up at six a.m. to be in someone's office by 8 a.m. to work 40 or more hours a week to have nothing I can call my own in life. I do not want to work for years, and not have any assets or any real capital that I can give off to further generations in my family, and pray that my pension is still there by the time I retire. That is the brief image of work that appears in my mind when I take time to think of it. It is unfortunately a negative impression, and that is because most of the people I know hate what they do to earn a living, but learn to deal with it. This has caused me to "work" towards an adult life that will allow me to enjoy the work that I do to enjoy a lifestyle that I would like to live, though there will always been different kinds of work associated with even a great job, that I will not be eager to do.
When I think about the term "work", it itself does not set off another network of ideas or objects, as Lakeoff proposes, but it brings on impressions and memories tied to the work that I know and have experienced. I may think about my high school days, working for Burger King, because it was the worst kind of work I had ever done. I tend to think about people I know who come home from work, already stressing about the next day because they hate what they do. Then, there are more positive impressions I receive, thinking about working as a DJ or photographer, earning money doing the things that I love to do, but in those instances where I'm earning money, those passions are considered work, by definition. With this being said, I like to develop more positive thoughts about work, because I don't think that a work should cause any limits or problems for an individual, but it should be a process of diligence that would allow someone to truly benefit from that work that they are doing. There should be a return on that physical or mental investment of time.
2 comments:
I like the end of your post where you begin to develop the idea that you can change your perspective about something like work. Do you think that colleges are preparing students and guiding them towards changing the negative perspectives about 'work' that many students bring with them?
How do you think people can change their perspective about work without going to college and changing careers? Is that possible?
I don't think directly, but I think through higher education and enlightenment, students will be more fit to mold the lifestyles that they want to live after completing their degrees. I think that the outside world makes that very difficult to do, especially if one is not self-employed and can outline their own conditions under which they work, but a good education can allow one to be competitive and innovative, and that's what can change students' perspectives on how they perceive what work has been for them versus what it should be. I think the beauty of the U.S., as it is the land of the opportunity, is that you do not necessarily have to have a degree to become successful, though I think the professional and social norms have made it more difficult to do so without credentials. Self-employment is a way you can change what work is going to be like for yourself. I won't say that not working for yourself is a negative thing, but I think it's more difficult to change your perspective about work because you are not in control of the policies and conditions that outline your work, and that requires constant compromise.
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