Labor Day is a U.S. Holiday for the people who work (not servicemen or women) but just your average Joe… or maybe that Average Joe is to this day under appreciated.
I thought I’d write up an article to look at the state of the American Worker, and if this figure is worth defending in the age of a changing society. I’ve put together 3 types of workers, the Work Hard, the Play Hard, and the Think Hard. Now understand these three types of on the 110% intensity is never a good idea.
Work Hard types
The work hard types, are the people who put 110% into the “job”, in fact these so called “hard-workers” (which is a prejudicial statement, because we are not in the said type of worker) do not call their work “work”, to them it’s a “job”. I challenge the language of the word “job”, it has undertones of meaningless labor, that someone feels only obligated because they need money, and most often these blue-collared workers, are not having satisfaction of their job, because it’s that “job” that gets put down upon by higher ups in an organization (whether it’s a non profit or a Fortune 500 enterprise)
They work, eat and sleep, repeat it again, and while they are dedicated, they don’t always seem to have their professional hat on, even for a meaningless “job”. The “work-hard” types isn’t for the hourly wage workers, even ones based on performance may have this ethic. It’s the stereotypical All-American ethos, but this very same ethos is harming our society.
Play Hard types
This comes directly out of the track of the Work Hard types. I am not dismissing this type of people, and in fact, I don’t consider this to be a work ethic per se. This is because I seen tons and tons of Work Hard types run away from reality. These people will work the 40 hours, and then ether binge watch Netflix, go to the movies (pre COVID), watch hours upon hours of fictional dramas, sitcoms, etc. While watching the same subject over and over, the fake reality becomes real. So then you hear people say “I saw that in a movie”, or “it happens in the movies”, etc. They are mass consumers of entertainment, but not with moderation. As a result, instead of learning things in books, newspapers, news content (outside the commercialized news programming); documentaries, they need a high stimuli of excessively amusing content, not to mention alcohol, drug and other abuses to substances.
Think Hard workers
The Think Hard types are the obnoxious and pretentious of all three, but many of the Think Hard types aren’t your Harvard or Yale workers, these people also fall into low level jobs in the Work Hard types. They are pretentious, philosophical, and they have this weird interest in cultural and intellectual stuff. It’s a polite way to call these people nerds. They lack the empathy of the Play Hard types, because they think those people are just weird (or worse dumb.) While elements of the Think Hard as I closed out of Play Hard with, the issue is they lack the empathy of what the Play Hard lacks and then writes them off, but they have a deficit too. Pop Culture whether you like it or not, is a real thing for Americans, and many, to completely write them off, is another.
Think Hard types do not typically work hourly, and many of these people lack empathy, as higher level positions kinda indirectly require less emotions. Think Hard types are typically the ones who would make more money than the hourly, but the issue is they are on the extreme end of work ethics. They typically have Type A personalities, they tend to gaslight (yes these so called intellectuals), and do other levels of abuse.
How can we celebrate American workers?
I think the best way to celebrate Labor Day are the people who put a lot of work, and get undervalued. American workers is a large spectrum between the Work Hard to Think Hard; and the running joke of “there’s never a shortage for nitwits” and an abundant level of “managers” really emphasizes the Average Joe should be valued. The ones with average emotional and intellectual intelligence; with the a fair level of work ethic should be celebrated. We should move away from “jobs” as a verbiage so we can value our workers again by making that so-called “job” meaningful. There is a reason why there has been an uproar since the Financial Crisis, and I think it’s too simple to say people want to be on unemployment.
The issue is we are so divided, we cannot agree what is the truthful fact. And I don’t see that anytime soon.