A Happy Work Life

My ideal work life is one that involves challenges, creative tasks, and a sense of accomplishment at the end of each workday. I would like a job that allows me to think on my own rather than being told what to do in every situation. I want to plan large events and be involved in all of the details that go along with them. It is essential that I follow the craft ideal and work because it is a process of self-development and enjoyment. I want work to be something that I do because I love it and not simply because it earns money. “Work as a duty…has been changing considerably in the last decades,” says Erich Fromm. No longer do people focus on work as a necessary evil. The workplace now has the capacity to excite and fulfill its workers. This is the type of attitude I plan on having towards my work life.

I plan to avoid every form of alienated work by being emotionally connected to my career. If I feel passionate and creatively involved in a project, I will not be alienated from my work. Alienation in the workplace means that everything is set up for you. You have a time and a pace to work at. You are not fulfilled by your work, creativity is limited, and wages represent self worth. Money should not be the only reason for working and if it is, then the worker is alienation from their career. Fromm says, “Work, instead of being an activity satisfying in itself and pleasurable, became a duty and an obsession.” Some people see their job as a duty and a way to earn money. Other individuals put off career enjoyment until they feel they have enough money to leave the alienated job and move to something they actually enjoy. Careers focused on alienation cause the workers to become hostile and lazy. Both of these characteristics do not encourage the type of work life I wish to have.

Jill Fraser discusses alienation in White-Collar Sweatshop and says that “unpleasant working conditions, difficult job demands, and rising career insecurities have combined to make stress the constant companion of many of today’s white-collar men and women.” Workers are no longer doing jobs that they love, but rather carrying stress with them throughout the day because of their jobs. They have less time to unwind because they are working long hours and even weekends. Another problem associated with today’s worker is “job spill.” This means that the concrete lines of work in the past are no longer present. For example, the forty-hour workweek and a lunch break every day. Workers no longer have a work life and a social life; work becomes their entire life.

Fromm and Fraser’s main point is that alienation has taken over the craft ideal in the workplace. People have forgotten that it is possible to have a career that is fun, creative, and challenging in a positive way. I will not waste time in an alienated career. I do not want any form of alienation in my future work life and I will not stay in a job if I see the pattern of alienation becoming prevalent. I want my work life to be challenging and fulfilling, but I do not want it to become a task or something to dread. If this ever happens in my work life, I will find a job that better suits me.



Erich Fromm



Jill Andresky Fraser's Book White- Collor Sweatshop

Erich Fromm, "Worker in an Alienated Society." In Harry Brent and William Lutz (Eds.), Rhetorical Considerations (3rd Ed.), pp.228-232. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop Publishers, 1980.

Jill Andresky Fraser, White- Collor Sweatshop. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2001.