Meaning Statement: Without Work, There Can Be no Leisure - Assignment Example

Without Work, there can be no leisure? Name Professor Institution Course Date Without work, there can be no leisure? The work and leisure dichotomy was created in the 1800s. The term "work–life balance" was initially used in the UK in the 1970s to explain the balance between a person's work and private life. In the US, this expression was first applied in 1986. Chucks (2007) examine work and leisure as a totality component; he considers them to be connected together. Chucks (2007) argued ‘It is simpler to consider leisure as the reverse of work or to describe it as time available just after work’. However, the correlation between work and leisure life goes much back and deeper from the time of the industrial revolution. Work is something that is performed to fulfill a certain goal. Individuals who have a job are regarded the ‘working group’ as they perform activities to make something done. It could be also regarded as that even the simple action of finishing a task is observed as work. Work and leisure are important factors of well-being. They are always significant to human survival because they frequently define their identity (Bateman & Snell 2002). Work is defined as the source of a better life, the pathway to person independence, and a need for human flourishing and survival. It is also considered as the unique means by which human ensure their individuality as normal, goal-directed living beings. Work has a shared human practice from the time of civilizations. Leisure in the contrary represents the freedom from the work demands. Gershuny (2000) defines leisure as the state of mind or mental form in which human establish freedom in an unreservedly preferred activity that they embark on because of its personal intrinsic reasons. It is the foundation behind social growth and the important attribute of man. Therefore, work is a necessity and virtue. In uncertainty times, market economy and interdependence, the person has to depend on his work to make certain his be the owner of well-being. The work presents a person with the capability to be self-independent, to thrive, to grow, and most significantly, to discover a sense of life. Work is a critical tool with which people can realize their ambitions and have a significant life. It may not be the foundation of a sensible life however considered an inseparable part of life. Amaral (2008, p. 132) views meaningful life as interrelated with a productive work, goal accomplishment and happiness. Successful work helps people to control their existence by gaining knowledge and translating their values and ideas into a physical form. Through work, people actualize their abilities and needs to their existence. Work is also very important in shaping up our identity and building the community. However, continuous work without rest makes human sick and tired (Isao-Ahola & Mannell 2004, p.191). After spending most of time working, leisure is indeed needed to relax your mind and reflect on the work. Leisure is essential for every human being, because everybody necessitate letting go their everyday life and stress of work. Even though leisure is currently believed to be an important part of work, some cultures did not consider it important. In early Roman Empire work was regarded important while rooting for hard labor, self-deprivation and good works. The church also expelled most types of leisure except for the ones associated to worship like playing music. According to Gershuny (2000) work was adored while idleness (leisure) was associated with evil. Despite emphasizing on work, leisure normally came second. In Roman Empire, leisure was only marked on holy days while marking public celebrations entailing drinking, gambling and socializing (Gershuny 2000). Early days of Roman Empire development are what shaped the nature of work and leisure in the workplace. The middle times were founded around the principle of leisure superiority. At the time of the industrial revolution there were a lot of changes in the leisure developments. Several, cities recognized the need for leisure so local authorities built spacious recreational facilities for such activities. Most of the facilities remained unused because several working classes did not have time to take part in leisure activities. The time spent relaxing is the free duration spent carrying out pleasant activities. Leisure is a significant factor in individuals’ lives. According to Mestdag & Minnen (2008, p. 73) leisure events are those related to outdoor living, the beach, sport and make a significant part of Australian’s identity. The connection between work and leisure is reliant on the quality of life topics and differs with every person depending on their work choices. For various people, leisure is an addition of their work. Rojek (2005) affirms that leisure is associated with job satisfaction and participation in work. Work also offers the monetary means with which partake in leisure. The bond that connects work and leisure has attracted scholars from a number of disciplines during the industrialized age. In economics, the interest has been the amount of labor supply and the balance between work and leisure. The work-leisure relationship question has been in the sociologists minds for quite a long time (Armstrong, 2000). Various people from different cultures view work and leisure in different perspectives. The relationship between work and culture is even mentioned in the bible during the creation. Creation of different living and non-living things took six days and on the seventh day God relaxed. This is seen as leisure time when you take your time off to reflect on the work that one has been doing all along. The bible also advises human beings to work for six days and rest on the seventh day. In the period of the industrial revolution, paid labor was considerably moved into offices and industries. In the early days of industrialization, a normal working day took 10 to 16 hours each day of a week with no time for leisure (Bateman & Snell, 2002). After World War I numerous European states started an eight-hour workday in reaction to labor unions’ regular demands and cruel confrontations. Currently, in most states a 40-hour working time in a week is a standard time created by law. There has been public debate over reducing the current 8-hour of work in a day to 6 hours (Stebbins 2004c, p. 23). This attributed by the fact that 8-hour of work leads too much fatigue amongst employees. Too much work leads to dissatisfaction and burnout. In industry workforce performed with fixed times, set by the clock, under work-detailed power and frequently along with work-specific relations with workmates. Contemporary industrial work was structured logically so as to minimize cost per unit and to maximize unit output of time and resource invested. Work was positively not managed in order to exploit job fulfillment. Hence work turned out to be a daily life, and leisure, whilst not the entire of non-work moment, was placed in it, and in contemporary societies it is at this moment of leisure time, their personal time, that individuals have relative freedom to decide their activities, and carry out things for their pure enjoyment (Matuska, & Christiansen et al, 2009). It has always been stated that sweet is joy following pain, i.e. Work. Human wears out both mentally and physically with nonstop occupation with worldly concerns. Most people, thus, find life a laborious business. Work is life tragedy which is equally inevitable yet equally tiresome (Lewis 2003, p. 346). Leisure breaks on the boredom of continuous work. A human's life is normally bound by habit; leisure grants the opportunity to get away out of the pressures of work and get the freedom of breathing fresh air. This, therefore hold that leisure cannot exist without the work. Leisure is a source of joy coming after tiresome work. Human brain gets fatigue curve by continuously minding paid work (Bateman & Snell, 2002). Brain and power then necessitate break or leisure. However, the idle mind is regarded as the devil's workshop. Meaning you cannot have leisure before you work otherwise one will be planning to do (work out) something bad. Therefore, some leisure pursuit ought to be pursued and nurtured to restore our energy (MacInnes 2006, p. 227). The basis of leisure, then, is in a way related to the rise of work as a rational culture and language group. Furthermore, leisure’s multiform chronological materializations cannot be separated from work and its different representations over time. As work transformed, leisure transformed too. While one might find earlier cases of “work” linked to slavery and regarded as people control over others, “leisure,” as a specific word or explicit concept is infrequent in the prehistoric world prior to the rise of the Greek city states. It is just with the growth of Greek Civilization that human beings first established and identified leisure as an understandable cultural form, consider it as a cultural property, contrast it unmistakably with “work,” and start to construct institutional perspectives around the new realism. Fox & Klaiber (2006, p. 419) argues that individuals strike a sense of balance between their work and leisure. Whenever one spends a short duration relaxing or having fun, he or she is missing out the money he or she could have generated had they worked. Similarly, time taken carrying out some work is time that one could have taken on leisure. Even though leisure and work are normally perceived to be on the opposite sides this is not usually the case. This is because several businesses now observe the advantages leisure can offer in the staff happiness and efficiency (Ndiyo 2005). The leisure concept is not a new idea; all through the history there have been consistently cases of leisure. In the ancient Rome though they focused on work, they had holidays where people took pleasure of watching and in various occasions participating in activities in the Coliseum. Today work and leisure is thought to have its influence from Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. The two philosophers viewed "work as a means and play as the end" (Jain 2007, p 21). At about 500BC at the time of Greek civilization the emergence of work and leisure ethics was always mentioned. Jain (2007, p. 17) argues that “The intelligent application of free time was the principle of life” was always used by the Greek philosophers in work related situations. This shows demonstrate that Greeks goals were to perfect the life of its citizens on matters that pertains work. They emphasized that good citizenship is created through education, work and leisure. The Greeks appreciation and understating that work and leisure create the Olympic Games that still happen today. Even though not everybody can participate in these games some people came to watch and support as part of their leisure (Gershuny 2000). Manual employees were considered off as unable of taking part in leisure. This is because of the attitude they were considered weak for the responsibilities of citizenship. The ancient Greeks founded the idea of leisure that has that has since been transmitted from one generation to the other. The Romans also understood the importance of leisure although in a different way. In the ancient Roman time there were bunch urban people that also comprised who created a class structure. According Collins & Kay (2003) Sports and leisure were perceived as significant factors aspects that sustained physical fitness for war and work. Because of the significance of fitness level individuals were offered a lot of free time. However how much one carries out his or her work, working for a long time does not benefit much because of the fatigue that comes with it. Workaholics, the individuals whose sole purpose is to work, impose themselves on all other life activities and get burned out reducing their own efficiency (Eglite 2007, p. 73). Work should a key purpose in life although not the just one, because one risk missing the several opportunities of successful as a human being. These other opportunities can only be found in while taking part in leisure. This is because while participating in leisure activities such golf one meets famous people and share ideas about life and business ideas among other things. The work and leisure dichotomy are two important aspects of human nature that are inseparable. Whether they are used to sustain lifestyle through production, they set up a class or make sure loyalty, it is two opposing continuums and hence one cannot survive without another. Whether people consider it or not, leisure and fun activities add mostly to peoples’ identities and who they are. It has perceived and emphasized that leisure offers people a sense of direction and more frequently leads people to purpose of discovering themselves. References Amaral S 2008, Public leisure policies in Porto Alegre, Brazil, From representative democracy to participant democracy, World Leisure Journal, 50(2), p. 127–37. Armstrong, M 2000, Handbook of Human Resources Management, London, Kogan Page Ltd. Bateman, T & Snell, S 2002, Management – Competing in the New Era (5th Edition), New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Collins MF, with Kay T, 2003, Sport and Social Exclusion. London, Routledge. 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