Work (human activity)

Lore & Background

Work has taken many forms across human history, varying with environment, tools, skills, and institutions. Hunter-gatherer societies adjusted work intensity to seasonal availability of plants and migration of prey, while agriculture introduced more sustained practices with seasonal peaks like harvests. The early modern era saw Protestantism and proto-capitalism emphasize the moral and personal advantages of hard work, and capitalist industrialization intensified demands on workers to keep pace with machines. Restrictions on hours and ages of workers followed, along with rising demands for time off, but modern office work retains expectations of sustained, concentrated effort.

Reader's Guide

Work is a foundational concept across social sciences, intimately connected with power, class, tradition, rights, and privileges. The division of labor is a prominent topic both as an abstract concept and a characteristic of individual cultures. Work can threaten individual happiness and survival through dirty, dangerous, and demeaning occupations or death by overwork. Some have critiqued work and wished to reduce or abolish it entirely, as seen in Paul Lafargue's The Right to Be Lazy, David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs, and Bob Black's The Abolition of Work. Real-world programs to eliminate lifelong economic necessity first emerged through retirement and have been extended through universal basic income experiments. Work roles are commonly ranked by skill, experience, or perceived status, and different institutions grant workers qualitatively different power or rights, from slavery to elite sinecures.

Did You Know?

• Work has existed in all human societies, whether as paid or unpaid work.
• Some people have engaged in critique of work and expressed a wish to reduce or abolish it entirely.
• Work may present a threat to individual human happiness and survival, including death by overwork.