Verb
to take something away from someone or something
depriving
Work gets a terrible press. Pick up the paper on any day and you'll read about how work is killing our marriages, generating stress, depriving children of 'quality time', hollowing out local communities, and depressing us.
scapegoat
Work has become the scapegoat for all our woes. The case against work is put in persuasive terms on a daily basis. There’s just one problem: it's nonsense. In fact, as far as work is concerned, we've never had it so good.
satisfied
One survey shows that four out of ten British workers declare themselves 'very satisfied' with their jobs - more than in France, Germany, Italy, or Spain.
Adjective
relating to the time when a woman gives birth to a baby
maternity
Average earnings have increased, a lot of firms offer longer maternity leave, a third of firms now offer sabbaticals, and two-thirds allow their staff to work from home some of the time.
Noun
language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable
rhetoric
The rhetoric about longer working hours also needs to be put in perspective. The average working day has increased in length over the last two decades, but by just one minute and forty-two seconds.
Adjective
existing for a long time and very difficult to change
ingrained
Despite all the improvements in work over recent decades, there is still an ingrained attitude that happiness lies outside work; that we are waiting for the weekend.
Noun
the act of causing someone to feel that she or he no longer belongs in a particular group
alienation
This idea that work is essentially bad for us has a long history. Karl Marx described workers being 'alienated' from the product of their labor: What, then, constitutes the alienation of labor?' he asked.
Verb
to show a strong belief in or dedication to something, such as an idea
affirm
Marx goes on to answer: 'First, the fact that labor is external to the worker, i.e. it does not belong to his essential being; that in his work he does not affirm himself but denies himself.'
Verb
to cause someone to feel very embarrassed and foolish
mortify
Marx continues: 'The worker does not feel content but unhappy; does not develop his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind.'
dubious
Work is becoming too important for it to be of dubious quality. Work is a community, the place where we meet friends and form relationships, a provider of our social as well as our work life.
Noun
a sign that shows the condition or existence of something
indicator
One in three of us meets most of our friends through work, two-thirds of us have dated someone at work, and a quarter of us meet our life partners there. Work is also becoming a more important indicator of identity.
robust
Family, class, region, and religion are now less robust indicators, and work is filling the gap, making it the most important fact about ourselves we mention when we meet people.
futility
'Work,' as Albert Einstein said, 'is the only thing that gives substance to life.' The shift of work towards the centre of our lives demonstrates the futility of much of the current debates about 'work/life balance'.
reflect
The people who work more than sixty hours a week are the ones who say they like their jobs the most. This may seem surprising, until you reflect that people who like something might do more of it than people who do not.
Verb
to use or give something for a specific purpose
invest
Of course, this leaves open the question of who keeps the home fires burning and of the impact on children especially. It may be that people are choosing to invest less time and energy at home than others think they should.
valid
If certain people get more out of their work than they do out of their home, then perhaps this is a clear and valid choice for people to be making.
Noun
a written statement that describes the policies, goals, and opinions of a person or group
manifesto
Theodore Zeldin, an Oxford don, has the right manifesto for the future of work: its abolition. But not in the way anti-work campaigners have in mind.
abolish
Zeldin says 'We should abolish... the distinction between work and leisure, one of the greatest mistakes of the last century, one that enables employers to keep workers in lousy jobs by granting them some leisure time.'
Noun
an initial or partial payment one makes to reduce a debt or to show gratitude
down payment
‘We should strive to be employed in such a way that we don't realize what we are doing is work.' Zeldin throws down the challenge for work in the 21st century. It's time to abandon the idea of work as a down payment on life.
Noun
an unfair and untrue belief that many people have about a category of people or things
stereotype
However, before we can do so, all the modern myths about work will have to be exposed: the ones that continue to stereotype work as intrinsically sapping, demeaning, and corrosive. It is time to give work a break.