To be truly happy, a person must feel both free and important. People are never happy if they feel compelled to do work they do not enjoy, or if what they do enjoy is ignored as having no value or importance. In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished, the social indications around work, the value of work, and the salary, have degraded many laborers into modern slaves – “wage slaves”.
People are considered laborers if their jobs have an adverse effect on them, yet they feel compelled to continue working by the necessity of conforming to societal expectations and earning the revenue to support themselves and their families. The polar opposite of labor is play. When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, but it is a purely private pastime; society does not care when or whether we play.
Between labor and play stands work. People are labeled as workers if their personal interests coincide with the jobs society pays them to do; what is necessary labor from the point of view of society is voluntary play from the individual’s personal point of view. Whether a job is to be designated as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, correlate with the difference between a manual and mental job or between jobs with low or high income; a gardener covered in dirt in a greenhouse may be a worker while a well-dressed city mayor may prove to be an unhappy laborer!
Whether people are workers or laborers can be seen from their attitude toward leisure. To workers, leisure means simply the hours they need to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. Workers are therefore more likely to dedicate more time to working, taking too little leisure rather than too much. To laborers, on the other hand, leisure means autonomy from compulsion, so it is natural for them to imagine that the fewer hours they have to spend laboring, and the more hours they have free for play, the better.
Besides the hours spent in leisure, workers and laborers differ in the amount of personal satisfaction they derive from their jobs. Workers who enjoy their jobs will be happier, less stressed, and generally more satisfied with their lives. They will also work with more diligence and precision because they have fostered a sense of personal pride in their jobs. On the other hand, laborers, whose sole incentive is earning their livelihood, feel that the time they spend on the daily grind is wasted and doesn’t contribute to their happiness. Instead of valuing all 24 hours of their day as enjoyable and productive hours, they gauge only the time spent in leisure and play as meaningful. Laborers are commonplace in society, but still many people are in the lucky position of being workers.
In recent decades, technological innovation and the division of labor have caused major economic changes by eliminating the need for special strengths or skills in many fields and have turned many paid occupations with enjoyable work into boring labor. Increasing productivity with automated machines, such as robots, has reduced the number of necessary laboring hours. It is possible to imagine an upcoming society in which the majority of the population will have almost as much leisure time as in earlier times was enjoyed by the medieval aristocracy. The medieval aristocrats had an abundance of leisure time but often wasted it in trivial pursuit of games and fashion. Likewise, modern day laborers with too much leisure time may find it difficult to refrain from the addictive and trivial pursuits of celebrity gossip, extravagant fashion, and excessive video games and TV – similar bad habits that waste valuable time.
However, it’s not necessary to take such a toxic attitude toward such a positive thing as leisure time. In fact, in many countries, people now use their leisure time to improve their minds and their working conditions to create a happier, more contented life. Lifelong learning can make the difference between being bored, unhappy laborers and workers who find meaning and joy in their employment and lives. “Continuing education” or “experiential learning” can offer an array of classes from pleasant diversions such as sports, art, or music, to leadership development or advanced accounting skills, to name but a few.
All in all, people’s attitude toward their work determines everything. Whatever the job, people who enjoy their work find time passes quickly. They hurl their passion into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or more mental like that of a scientist or an artist. Even purely mental work can suffice as an outlet, as aptly expressed by the phrase “sinking one’s teeth into a problem”.
Eventually, everyone has to find a job and earn a living. Laborers are slaving away at a job they don’t enjoy for a monetary reward, waiting all day until they go home and play. But while laborers are counting down the hours, workers are energized and focused, taking optimum pleasure in the task at hand. By choosing a job that is both useful to society and personally fulfilling, workers maintain a simultaneous sense of purpose and enthusiasm that improves their whole lives. So in the end, whatever job you choose, you must contend with this essential question: Will you be a laborer or a worker?