{"id":113,"date":"2021-06-04T21:40:47","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T21:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardinalcognition.com\/hmb\/?p=113"},"modified":"2022-02-03T14:24:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T14:24:53","slug":"work-and-human-needs-in-the-xxi-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardinalcognition.com\/hmb\/2021\/06\/04\/work-and-human-needs-in-the-xxi-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Work and human needs in the XXI century"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI work to stay alive.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bette Davis<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt is one of the oldest jobs in human history, which dates over 1.8 million years ago. Still, at that time, it was not considered a job, because it was an essential activity for survival. Later our development sustained the appearance of other jobs like the clothier (between 100 000 and 500 000 YA), storyteller (200 000 YA), painter (67 000 YA), musician (50 000 YA), farmer (around 13 000 YA), builder ( 10 000 \u2013 15 000 YA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As not everybody could hunt, tell stories, sing, build or farm each member of the society chose the activity it was better at and all his life did that. Therefore, somebody that could build had no skills in farming, and vice versa, so the farmer needed the builder to make him a house, and the builder needed the farmer for food. From this moment, skills and good dexterity in something became an element of barter. Each profession was vital because it contributed to ensuring an existential balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Without work, nothing prospers.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophocles<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Today, we have around 12 000 job titles, and the society we live in is totally different. The work we did, the collaboration between different works, the inventiveness, and the improvement contributed to a social change. The builder managed to improve the construction strategies- we ended up having cities with buildings up to 828 m, the farmers that collaborated with researchers have come to cultivate different varieties of plants much more resistant to harmful factors of the environment (pests, drought), the clothes after collaborating with the technician, the inventor, the researcher, and the farmer came to make much more clothes and at a much better quality, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the work made at the best quality possible sustained the social change, the enlargement of jobs variety, etc. that the world we live in today got much more comfortable, with many more opportunities and with a much better level of life. Considering all these advantages, do we have enough time to enjoy them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret Fuller<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As from ancient times, the job has been associated with activities that ensure our survival; they have been made each day as long as possible to make provisions (food security), to improve the place we stayed (home security), etc. Thus, since the beginning, the jobs involved spending much time each day for a good living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, around the world, almost everyone is working 8 hours by day. These hours were set in 1817 by Robert Owen as an ideal work-life balance (8 hours of work\/ 8 hours of sleep\/ 8 hours of recreation). Indeed from a mathematical perspective, this seems quite right, but nowadays looking at the unemployment rates, we see that the employees are quite unhappy with this program. Namely that from those 8 hours of recreation, almost 3h are spent on preparing and going to work. So the recreation hours are highly reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been the reason why lately many people prefer a part-time job that allows them to balance their work-life according to their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe that in 1817 given the industrial revolution, the 8 hours of work were established considering the overall society needs. Since then, humans as individuals evolved so much, and the individual importance has grown together with personal needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1943 considering the human motivations to work, Abraham Maslow built a pyramid which highlighted from the basis to the top- five human needs (psychological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem, and self- actualization).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Source: Maslow, 1943, cited in McLeod, 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Considering Maslow\u2019s psychological analysis, we observe that work fulfills only our psychological and safety needs. Sometimes it may even disturb our safety (health). Then, the way our working system is organized may worsen our love and belonging needs. Especially when the time we spent with our families and friends is less and when for the social activity we have even less time. These things may cause in the first place physical and mental problems together with personal problems. The above causes constitute a strong reason for the high divorce rates we have lately. Family separation and individual growth can cause a mismatch of characters and, finally, a divorce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, the specialists established that depending on the performed work- two weekend days might not be enough for mental and physical recovery after five days of work (Totterdell et al., 1995). The insufficient recovery time could affect the work quality, and therefore the quantity becomes irrelevant. In this direction, it was found that there is no difference in the wellbeing of the persons that work 40h\/week and those with 48h\/week; on the contrary, a high number of working hours may diminish a person’s happiness. If we look at the happiest people- Finland, with 37.5h\/week; Denmark- 37h\/week; Norway- 33.4h\/ week; The Netherlands- 38h\/week- they have less than 40 hours of work by week. Then on the other side, we have Colombia and Turkey that exceed 47 hours of work by week. You may argue that more work equals more wealth. Not exactly! On the list of the 50 wealthiest countries in the World (the richest five countries in the World: Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Ireland) we cannot find Colombia or Turkey, and at the same time on the top of the happiest countries in the World except Norway, we cannot find the richest ones (Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden). So the happiness, that describes the level of our fulfillment, what is it based on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a 2020 World Happiness Report, the criteria for happiness are healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, low corruption, social support, and sufficient financial resources. (Helliwell et al., 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if our needs are defined by something more than wealth, how can the employers of the XXI century motivate the employees as long as they can promise only the remuneration for work that fulfills two of our basic needs? Despite their trial to create a friendly environment at work- work is work, and the personal need for love, social life, and belonging do not have a place there. This is the reason why many employees today choose to work two or three years and then take some time for personal development, accomplishment, family, travel, or stick in a permanent search of work that fulfills more of their personal needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashton T.S. (1997). The industrial revolution 1760-1830. In OUP Catalogue.<\/em> Oxford: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Csiszar J. (2019, 12, 05). The 50 richest countries in the World<\/em>. Retrieved 04 24, 2020, from Finance Yahoo: https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/50-richest-countries-world-090000142.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helliwell J.F. et al. (2020). World Happiness Report.<\/em> New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson L. (2020, 01 01). 8 oldest professions in the World<\/em>. Retrieved 04 23, 2020, from oldest.org: https:\/\/www.oldest.org\/people\/professions\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King P.W. (2009). Climbing Maslow’s Pyramid. Choosing your own path through life.<\/em> Leicester: Troubador Publishing Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McLeod, S. (2020). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Simply Psychology<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quaglia, S. (2020, 02, 11). Experts reveal the ideal number of hours you should work each week<\/em>. Retrieved 04 24, 2020, from Inverse: https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/mind-body\/experts-reveal-the-ideal-number-of-hours-you-should-work-each-week<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson M. T. (2020, 01, 01). List of Job Descriptions<\/em>. Retrieved 04 24, 2020, from Career Planner: https:\/\/www.careerplanner.com\/DOTindex.cfm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Totterdell P. et al. (1995). Recovery from work shifts: how long does it take? Journal of applied psychology vol. 80, no.1<\/em>, 43=57.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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