Workers and the Workplace
(also Leisure)
BACKGROUND
The history of work is synonymous with the history of the human species.
We are tool makers (homo farber) who have gained modest control over the environment. But the daily struggle, for many people in the world, has led to a very meager existence.
Question: Does low tech = a life of toil?
Does high tech = a life of leisure?
First, the low tech approach:
!Kung Bushmen of Africa work about 12 to 19 hours per week.
In earlier societies —there was no frenetic pace “to get ahead.”
—work and entertainment were mixed.
—the economy was non-inflationary.
—labor was non-specialized.
The development of agriculture mean that people had more food (crops and domesticated animals), but they also had to work harder. They were tied to the land. Slavery as an institution was common.
Question:Did machines become our slaves? E.g. robots
Or did we become servants of the machine?
Time
In medieval monasteries monks became clock watchers. Newton said the universe was like an immense clock and God was the clock maker. The bells of the church tower were replaced by the factory whistle. Keeping the factory machines running around the clock, 7-3, 3-11, 11-7, became the norm. Time became a commodity. “Rush hour” is thus related to the mechanical universe. Phrases like “saving time,” “wasting time,” “spending time,” and “time is money” became common.
Leisure time became more and more organized. E.g. Little League, two week vacations (Europeans regularly take 5 to 6 week vacations).
What about today’s worker?
There are 168 hours in a week.
46 are spent working (27%) – but 38% work over 50 (that is 30% of the week)
35 are spent sleeping from the fatigue of work (21%)
10 are spent commuting (6%)
5 are spent getting ready for work (3%)
24 are in the evenings, resting, worrying, and complaining about work (14%)
SUBTOTAL 120 hours (72%)
48 are weekends, including sleeping (28%)
TOTAL 168 hours (100%)
Work hours declined from 67 per week in 1860 to 42 per week in 1950.
Since then, the average work week has increased to 45 hours today.
Juliet Schor, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure:
“When people put in excessive hours they reach a point of diminishing returns -- they use more time on personal needs, run more errands, and call in sick more often.”
At the end of World War II, "the US had the shortest working hours among other industrialized countries," she said. "We now have the longest. We have surpassed Japan, which when I wrote my book [in 1992] was seen as the world's workaholic country. The average American worker is putting in 200 more hours per year than he or she was in 1973."
“Free time” does not equal leisure, but is used to support our consumer-driven standard of living, e.g. fixing the house, mowing the lawn, washing the car.
The task-oriented “craftsman” worked long and hard to complete the job. Worker had many general skills. People were often paid for piecework.
The time-oriented “industrial” worker punches a clock and is paid by the hour. Workers are “de-skilled” by running only certain machines or by doing repetitive actions. Frederick Jackson Taylor, Scientific Management, studied the motions and schedules of workers to maximize factory efficiency.
Issues
Technological unemployment -- Robots, computers, and other electronic devices have changed the workplace and have created new jobs and eliminated older ones. The new jobs, however, do not necessarily go to the old employees. People need to be involved in “life-long” learning. Still there is age discrimination and some employers, given the opportunity, replace higher paid older workers with younger entry-level workers.
De-skilling caused by technology -- The transfer of skills from physical to mechanical, or from general to specific. E.g. John Henry and the pile driving machine (1870s) or hand-made goods being replaced by machine-based goods. In some cases a highly-skilled crafter can be replaced by an automated device that just needs to be oiled and tended.
Decline of unions -- Unionization was 33% of all workers in 1954, now it is less than 15% of all workers. Unionized jobs with decent pay and worker benefits have been transferred overseas, for example in the garment and auto industries. Workers on strike, for example the air-traffic controllers in the mid-1980s, were replaced by scab labor.
On the job safety -- There has been improvement in machine safety since the early industrial revolution and the government (OSHA) sets some standards. Still, there are more and more hazardous chemicals, and different kinds of workplace injuries, for example carpal tunnel syndrome. There are also increasing stress-related disorders and new problems such as sick building syndrome. In general there are fewer violent deaths on the job, but more long-term debilitating injuries and diseases.
Women as workers
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, “From Virgina Dare to Virginia Slims.”
Women have been part of the market economy since colonial times.
Historical trends:
1. When doing the same work, women are paid less than men.
2. Women are rarely hired to do the same work as men (sex typing).
3. Women see themselves and are seen as transient in the workplace. They are expected to marry and raise children. It has thus been difficult for women to organize and unionize. There are fewer women in senior positions such as management.
4. Some low paying men’s jobs in the 19th century have become stereotypical women’s jobs in the 20th century: seamstresses, schoolteachers, bookkeepers, secretaries.
5. The home (traditionally women’s sphere) is seen as a low-paying or non-paying workplace. Even though having individual kitchens, laundries, etc. in every home could be considered inefficient in an industrial society. there has been great resistance to such ideas as communal or “socialized” kitchens or laundries. Today’s trend toward home offices and “telecommuting” often means women (and men) are outsiders to office politics. Such jobs are often the first to be cut or marginalized during downsizing.
The American Workforce
185019101990s
EotechnicPaleotechnicNeotechnic
FarmFactoryOffice
NatureMachineryInformation
Farmers 64%Factory 40%Service 55%
Farmers 30%Factory 28%
Farmers 3%
Technology has initiated a transformation of work from physical to mental.