Americans are considered one of the hardest working group of people in today’s world. Work is important as we all want to ensure our needs are satisfied. However, society today labors harder than before and would even seek to eliminate relaxation and recreation time. Is our life mainly based around working? Is it possible to even work ourselves to death? In Ellen Goodman’s “The Company Man” and Andrew Curry’s “Why we work” the attitudes Americans have towards work is highlighted. Work can consume us so much we sometimes die as a result of working extremely hard. Goodman, Ellen “The Company Man” elaborated about how Phil was a workhorse and laborer up until the day he died. Phil would go beyond his call of duty and came into work on days it was not expected of him. Ellen Goodman page 507 stated” He worked six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night, during a time when his own company had begun the four-day week for everyone but the executive.” He worked even when it was not necessary to do so.
As a result of living a sedentary lifestyle Phil was overweight and at 3 am on a Sunday morning he died because of heart failure. He worked almost every day and in turn was unable to create a bond with his children. Goodman, Ellen page 507 stated “In the day and a half before the funeral, he went around the neighborhood researching his father, asking the neighbors what he was like.” Phil’s attitude towards work was strict till he was able to work himself to death. Likewise, in Curry, Andrew “Why we work” explained further why people continue to work hard. The current economic conditions has forced people to toil even outside the normal hours of work to chase the American dream. Andrew Curry page 261 stated “Today, work dominates Americans’ lives as never before, as workers pile on hours at a rate not seen since the Industrial Revolution. Persons who are not satisfied with their jobs continue to work just because they have no choice. Similarly, Americans have chosen “a path of consumption over leisure.”
Curry, Andrew stated” Instead of working less, our hours have stayed steady or risen and today many more woman work so that families can afford the trappings of suburbia.” It is outlined that society is moving from the traditional roles where men go out to work and women stay home. Reason being economic conditions have forced women to join the workforce to maintain the household eliminating the time for leisure. Thus, Americans saw work as a requirement for survival rather than how it was before in the Industrial Revolution. In the articles Ellen Goodman “The Company Man” and Andrew Curry “Why we Work” shows similar ways how hard Americans work today. I agree that Americans attitudes have changed towards work and everybody is working harder than ever to secure “the dollar”. Even if it means working hard and long for less than you deserve the idea is that you are in fact working.
I can remember in the early stages of my life my grandmother would stay at home and cook for all her children and grandmother. However, for the past four years my grandmother has been working from six to six five days of the week just because economic conditions have forced her to. She no longer saw work as a choice but definitely as a must. Hence, I firmly agree that American attitudes like those explained in “The Company Man and “Why we Work” are rigorous and strict. Americans no longer have time for recreation or even family bonding time. They are consumed about working. Curry, Andrew page 260 stated “Some do it for love. Others do it for money. But most of us do it because we have no other choice.” Americans are now working harder with even longer hours.