Work and Leisure

“My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh -- anything but work.“
-Abraham Lincoln

Dating back to the 1800‘s, as well as before and after then, work has only been known as a means of making a living to support the family. Depending on whom the person was and what social class they held, work was not something too enjoyable. There was also little time for leisure, for men especial, during the day since most people had to work hard in order to have goods to trade and sell. People who had a lot of wealth or value, which were primarily the rich and white, virtually did nothing while middle-class white males worked hard while the women held domestic jobs. As for people of color, they were deemed slaves. Now, in the year 2013, there has been an incline in female workers in factories, corporations, and other various jobs. Slavery has been abolished and America is beginning to see a level playing field relating to work and business. But even with this being said, do people truly enjoy the work that they do? According to, www.businessinsider.com, 80 percent of working men and women do not enjoy their jobs. Along with this, the average day for an American adult (24-54) is consumed with around 8.8 hours of work, 7.6 hours of sleep, and 2.5 hours of doing leisure activities. Work has completely consumed America, and oddly enough, we are one of the few countries that has statistics as in-proportionate as these. Balancing work and Leisure is something that Americans seem to find hard to do. We tend to over-work ourselves and from that we get sick, stressed-out, and end up with many other physical health conditions. As of now, there are still no mandatory laws stating that workers are required paid sick days and no legally mandated annual leave. In every other country, besides Canada and Japan, the United States is the only country that does not give their employees at least 20 paid vacations days. This is significant because being over-worked can be very dangerous. If a man operating a machine is tired from working too hard and lack of sleep, he could cause an accident in the factory and end up killing himself of harming others. Other than harming others, stroke and heart attacks are very common in people with high stress levels. Stress is primarily caused from being over worked and having too much to do with little time to do so. Other disorders that can arise from stress, according to www.livestrong.com, can vary between depression, anxiety, anger, forgetfulness and many other mental issues. Active forms of leisure and recreation actives have been proven to increase productivity not only during the day, but also while working. It allows more blood to flow to your brain creating more air flow causing it to work more efficiently. What we need to remember is that is it okay to ask for more time off or longer vacations, we are just so consumed by the power of money that we lose site on what is truly important. With an increase in leisure time, a person is able to think clearly and act in “sane” fashion. People are able to do things on their own and not have to have someone tell them that what they are doing is not right. This, in turn, will lead to a more effective production process or business. Even with the increase in work hours, wages still are not rising as fast, which mean workers are doing more for less. Corporations are slowly, but surely, taking complete ownership of the lives of many Americans. Not only does being consumed by work affect health mentally and physically, it takes away from valuable family time. Too often are children neglected by parents because they are either too busy or too tired to play with their children due to a long day at work. From this, gang violence, drug use, and suicide happen because children do not feel like they are being loved enough or cared about for that matter. If parents had the time to sit down and spend quality time with their children, then these statistic might not be as high. Family time not only brings people closer together, but also allows people to take a break from everything and just relax with the ones they love and care about. Love can be a powerful tool in overcoming a slump, especially when a person does not think life is going well or if things tend to get rough. Work is not only limited to having a job or a career. Work, in my opinion, can also be going to school. Based off personal experiences, studying and doing homework until early hours in the morning takes a toll on the body and mind. After pulling an “all-nighter” I notice that I cannot think straight and that my ideas start to blur together. Things stop making sense and I become tired and drowsy. Class at this point becomes hard to attend because I have troubles staying awake; from then on the day get worse and worse. I tend to slack a little more in classes from less sleep and it affects my overall grade. It gets hard to balance school and work and from it all I usually get a cold and end up bed-ridden for a few days. The stress from finals, especially, is something no student likes to go through. Everything is due at once and teachers are stick cramming in material that they got behind on. Just like a working man or woman, however, we as American students, are too consumed with getting good grades in order to have a successful future. This is the beginning of heart risk that we could potentially have. I believe that the time we are given off from school should have no homework whatsoever. It is our own personal time to get away from thinking and to just have fun with our youth. I believe that it is essential for people of all ages to have time away from strenuous activities and to have the chance to relax. Even if it is going for a walk every day or being outside playing around, everyone needs to be a kid now and then. Not even relaxing in front of the Television, but getting fresh air and being active. The air will help open the lungs and create airflow and better circulation through your body and organs. It can help reduce stress levels, stroke, and high blood pressure. We need to stop working ourselves to death and concentrate on being healthy and productive. In time, if we do no grasp this concept better, I fear that American’s will become worse and eventually there will be parents virtually taking care of their children from work. Interaction between humans will be strictly business . Obesity will rise, life expectancy will fall, and families will fall apart.