Relationship between Work and Leisure - Article Example

Running Head: WORK AND LEISURE Relationship between Work and Leisure Name Institution Relationship between Work and Leisure Introduction According to Gedelier (1980), work is a verb used in English to mean any act of doing things. It has a wide application and it is mostly used to refer to paid employment. This article will discuss how work is related to leisure from the Marxian plus Weberian perspectives. To fully understand the relationship, the article analyzes unemployment, housework as well as tourism. The paper describes the key conditions discussed in the including leisure, labor, devotee work, unemployment, housework and tourism. Leisure refers to the activities one performs and which are done outside the normal work schedule. Leisure does not earn income and even if it earns, the income is so insignificant that it may not qualify to be classified as part of a parson’s income. Conversely, a person is paid for the efforts he put at work and this is the major reason why people go to work (Edward, 1967). Salary is the payment paid to a permanently employed person due to the work done by him/ her. Wages refers to the payment given to temporally workers and mostly the wage rate is calculated according to the amount of work done (piece rate) or according to the amount of time spent at work (time rate) (Costello 2005). Housework refers to the work done at home and it includes but not limited to; house cleaning and the compound, cleaning utensils in the house, cooking for the family, as well as taking care of children or the aged in the family. Unemployment is a term used by economists to refer to the amount of labor force ready and able to work but with no work to do (Williams,1976). Unemployment is sometimes harmful or helpful to the economy. If the unemployment rate is low, it is considered to be helpful to the economy as it helps to reduce inflation in the economy. However, if unemployment rate rises to more than a certain level (usually above 5%), it becomes harmful to the economy (Costello, 2005). Leisure probably aids in helping people perform their work in a better way. Relationship between work and leisure Some individuals are highly dedicated to their work that they see no difference between the work and leisure. Leisure tresses its roots back to the time when human being started making tools for work and since then leisure has been going hand in hand with work (Jerry, 1975). After working for a better time of a day, a week, a month or even a year one need some time to rest and do his own work outside the normal work schedule so as to refresh his mind and perform better at work when he/ she goes back to work. This is the reason why labor laws of many countries require that workers be given annual leave so that they can relax and have some leisure activities and also have time with their family. Costello (2005), argues that work without leisure is like breathing in without breathing out which will lead to suffocation and death. He confirms that leisure should not be mistaken to mean resting as during leisure one does something productive. In order to improve his or her productivity at work, one needs to balance between work as well as leisure. Passive leisure is not the best type of leisure as it can easily lead to idleness. There are personal rewards in both work plus leisure. The rewards for work are salary and other benefits received from the employer or if self employed, the reward is the expected profit. The worker becomes satisfied too by gaining experience in the work and being able to perform the work better than before. He/she also benefits by achieving the expected career goals and business objectives from the work and business respectively. The rewards from leisure are personal satisfaction and refreshment of the brain which enables the worker to perform better at the work after the leisure break (Schwimner, 1975). Another characteristic shared by both leisure and work is that one is driven by a powerful attraction to his /her work just in the same way he/she is driven by an attraction to leisure. One has to have some interest in a career before making the decision to study the career and the interest becomes stronger the more the person stays in the career. For leisure, one has to have some fondness or love for the leisure activity before he/she enters in to the leisure activity. Tourism is more of leisure than of work because tourists travel so that they can have sometime to relax as well as refresh their minds away from home. Tourism promotes hard work in that a person anticipating to travel as a tourist will have to work hard prior to the journey so that he can have some savings from the job that will enable him to travel. One is required to save sufficient amount to cater for the traveling costs and other related expenses. By working harder, the person is said to be motivated by tourism to work and increase his productivity. Marx Weber’s view on labor and leisure According to Edward (1967), Protestantism was the cause of capitalism in Switzerland. He argues that those areas occupied by Protestants had a high number of people being satisfied with leisure than those areas occupied by Catholics. Catholic believers were discouraged from owning property thus the Catholics didn’t believe in the concept of either working hard in their employment or struggling to be entrepreneurs. According to him, religion played an important role in determining the leisure activity and the work that an individual performed. Catholics believed that capitalism was worldly and that what was important was spiritual wealth rather than worldly wealth. According to Luther’s concept of calling, God accepted only those who fulfilled their roles as allocated to them by the world and work was one of the callings that a person could be given in this word. Due to this conception, Protestants believed in hard work and the areas occupied by them developed faster than the areas occupied by the Catholics. Therefore, gathering of wealth was regarded as God’s blessings by ascetic Protestantism. They did not prevent individuals from having luxuries which was considered as one of the needs of the flesh. Hard work was believed to be a calling from the world and it was the surest way of getting certainty of salvation. The Marxian theory suggests that unemployment will lead to higher levels of productivity as the employees, in fear of losing their jobs, will work harder and produce more for the benefit of the entire economy. This theory however, does not look in to the negative effects of unemployment like unemployment related stress which results to separation in many families. Unemployment is also harmful to the economy in that it reduces the level of consumption which is an important component of the national income. As the level of consumption falls as the unemployed individuals will not be able to spend as much as they could spend during the days they were employed, the level of national income reduces too which implies a reduction in economic activity (Williams, 1976). The difference between unemployment and leisure is that unemployment is not a voluntary action. Even as there is a type of unemployment referred to as voluntary unemployment, the phrase is used wrongly as those who leaves their jobs in this way does it because of dissatisfaction in the job and not as a result of their own will. Leisure on the other hand, is done by a person because the individual is willing to do so and derives some kind of satisfaction from if. Unemployment also involves some element of idleness while in the case of leisure the person is mostly occupied by something to do. Economists’ perception of housework Most mainstream economists do not include housework or domestic labor as part of labor force in their studies. However, contemporary economists have the opinion that domestic labor should be included in the cost of labor because it has an opportunity cost. This is because the domestic laborer spends time at the job and could as well use that time to work elsewhere in the economy. Therefore, housewives, who perform the house chores, should not be considered as unemployed and they must be paid for the work they perform at home. The work should also be valued when taking statistics of the employment levels in the economy (Williams, 1976). The difference between leisure and work Work requires the person performing it to have some king of special training on the work so that he/she can perform it better. This means that the person needs to have the required skills as well as knowledge prior to performing the work. Alternatively, leisure does not require special skills as it is done by a person in the way he/he wishes it to be done. For the case of work, the worker must have both the taste and aptitude in order to perform it while a leisure activity can be carried out with someone without the taste. The individual must work in an environment that is conducive enough to make him perform the required tasks effectively. Leisure does not require a particular environment as it can be done anywhere at any time and by anybody. Conclusion As seen from this paper, work and leisure go hand in hand and they have many things in common than they do differ. Both leisure and work are done by people who are doing them out of the interest they have in them. They both originated from the same era, that is, the era in which human being started making tools for using in his work. They are also performed actively and they do not involve any aspects of idleness. Leisure helps a person to do his work better and it can be taken to be part of the work. Marx Weber, in his studies in Switzerland, found out that Protestantism contributed greatly to capitalism as it encouraged its believers to work hard as opposed to the Catholic beliefs. There are some differences between leisure and work as work requires the performer to possess prior knowledge and skill while leisure does not. On the basis of the arguments discussed above, I support the view that leisure helps individuals to do their job in a better way. References Costello, M. (2005). The Eight Myths of Howarth’s Industrial Relations. London: Oxford University Press. (p. 26) Edward, T (1967). Work Discipline and Industrial Capitalism. Past and Present. 38 (3). pp. 56-63. Gedelier, M. (1980). Work and its Representation, History Workshop.10 (1). Pp. 164-174. Jerry, W. L (1975). Making the Best Tourism. Trobriand Situation. 5 (4). 357-358. Schwimner, E., G. (1975). Feasting and Tourism. Comparison. 34 (3). Pp. 23-25. Williams, R. (1976). Work Keywords: Vocabulary of culture and society. New York: Fontana. (pp. 4) Read More

This is the reason why labor laws of many countries require that workers be given annual leave so that they can relax and have some leisure activities and also have time with their family. Costello (2005), argues that work without leisure is like breathing in without breathing out which will lead to suffocation and death. He confirms that leisure should not be mistaken to mean resting as during leisure one does something productive. In order to improve his or her productivity at work, one needs to balance between work as well as leisure.

Passive leisure is not the best type of leisure as it can easily lead to idleness. There are personal rewards in both work plus leisure. The rewards for work are salary and other benefits received from the employer or if self employed, the reward is the expected profit. The worker becomes satisfied too by gaining experience in the work and being able to perform the work better than before. He/she also benefits by achieving the expected career goals and business objectives from the work and business respectively.

The rewards from leisure are personal satisfaction and refreshment of the brain which enables the worker to perform better at the work after the leisure break (Schwimner, 1975). Another characteristic shared by both leisure and work is that one is driven by a powerful attraction to his /her work just in the same way he/she is driven by an attraction to leisure. One has to have some interest in a career before making the decision to study the career and the interest becomes stronger the more the person stays in the career.

For leisure, one has to have some fondness or love for the leisure activity before he/she enters in to the leisure activity. Tourism is more of leisure than of work because tourists travel so that they can have sometime to relax as well as refresh their minds away from home. Tourism promotes hard work in that a person anticipating to travel as a tourist will have to work hard prior to the journey so that he can have some savings from the job that will enable him to travel. One is required to save sufficient amount to cater for the traveling costs and other related expenses.

By working harder, the person is said to be motivated by tourism to work and increase his productivity. Marx Weber’s view on labor and leisure According to Edward (1967), Protestantism was the cause of capitalism in Switzerland. He argues that those areas occupied by Protestants had a high number of people being satisfied with leisure than those areas occupied by Catholics. Catholic believers were discouraged from owning property thus the Catholics didn’t believe in the concept of either working hard in their employment or struggling to be entrepreneurs.

According to him, religion played an important role in determining the leisure activity and the work that an individual performed. Catholics believed that capitalism was worldly and that what was important was spiritual wealth rather than worldly wealth. According to Luther’s concept of calling, God accepted only those who fulfilled their roles as allocated to them by the world and work was one of the callings that a person could be given in this word. Due to this conception, Protestants believed in hard work and the areas occupied by them developed faster than the areas occupied by the Catholics.

Therefore, gathering of wealth was regarded as God’s blessings by ascetic Protestantism. They did not prevent individuals from having luxuries which was considered as one of the needs of the flesh. Hard work was believed to be a calling from the world and it was the surest way of getting certainty of salvation. The Marxian theory suggests that unemployment will lead to higher levels of productivity as the employees, in fear of losing their jobs, will work harder and produce more for the benefit of the entire economy.

This theory however, does not look in to the negative effects of unemployment like unemployment related stress which results to separation in many families.

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