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Alienation In The Workplace Essay

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Alienation In The Workplace Essay
From an outsider’s point of view, the workplace in question appears to be efficient, effective, and has the reputation of excellent treatment of its workers, promising competitive wages and benefits. However, after conducting research internally on the work environment of the Ontario workplace, the conclusion has been drawn that there are a lot of internal issues that need to be understood and addressed. For example, the workers appear to be highly dissatisfied, lack motivation, apathetic, high rights of alcoholism, drug use and absenteeism. The first concept that was noticed in the workplace was Marx’ theory of alienation. Alienation is described as “The loss of self or relationships with others’ and ‘something that is profoundly important …show more content…
In Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Marx focusses on the division of labour between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the haves and the have-nots as well as the tension this creates. While the working class may be content with their role in society they eventually develop a class consciousness which lets them to the unfair division of labour, while Marx does not use the exact term class consciousness in his Communist Manifesto he describes a class in itself and a class for itself (Marx 1848, pg. 16). Furthermore, this class consciousness leads the worker to feel dissatisfied in their job, seriously apathetic, and with a general lack of motivation. It seems obvious that those who are seen as the lesser classes will come to a time where they will no longer want to work long hours to help the rich get richer and the poor to get poorer. Marx describes the process of two parties - capitalist and labourers who remain estranged from one another because the relationship they have is based on their conflicting interests and very different conditions of life. These differences lead to the lower class becoming objectified and at some point, knowledgeable about their objectification (Marx 1844, pg. 29). Therefore, once the working class becomes aware of their less than optimal situation and exploitation they are more likely to lack motivation, miss work, feel apathetic, and potentially turn to drugs and alcohol to help cope with their social

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