Shove your dreams aside

As I go through my junior year of college, the only thing that I think about is the fact that I will have to grow up, graduate, and get a job. I have hopes that I will be able to have a balance between my work and my life. I am not sure if anyone today can really escape alienated work, but I hope to find work that I have a passion for, but can back off in order to have a normal and well rounded life. In my career I want to have a good balance between creativity and constraint. In different terms, I hope that my work has a balance between rules and hierarchy as well as the freedom to explore all the possibilities that could be found in the job.

"Work instead of being an activity satisfying in itself and pleasureable, became a duty and an obsession. The more it was possible to gain riches by work, the more that it became a pure means to the aim of wealth and success" (Fromm). In Fromm's "Work in an Alienated Society," he discusses the difference between craft ideal and alienated labor. Craft labor is what people can think of when they think of artisans. Craft laborers work not only because they are good at what they do, but because what they do is, "not only a useful activity, but one which carries with it a profound satisfaction" (Fromm). Work today, as described by Fromm is driven by money only. People today are drawn to professions mostly because of the amount of money that they will recieve in exchange for their work, whether or not they actually love what they do. People who may have dreams and aspirations to work at a job that pays little, may shove those dreams aside in order to make more money. I want to have a drive to work, and love what I do first before I am drawn to the salary.

In another article by Jill Fraser, she describes work as alienated labor. People no longer take the breaks from work that they used to in order to spend time with their families, friends or even to have a personal day. It is seen almost as lazy to do so. People work so much in fact that they bring their work with them when they are trying to relax.People not only do their job, but they become their job. Businessmen and women of all kind are now in a society where it is almost impossible not to be able to reach someone,via email, text, cell phone etc. Work is seemingly happening to people, being almost forced apon them because they need the money, rather than people wanting to do it. People do not slow down in order to relax, and to take a breather. Because of the competition in the current workplace is so high, work environments themselves are becoming jungles in which employees can be attacked in order for someone else to advance. I do not like this about the American workplace, but someday I will have to venture out into this jungle, I just hope that I have enough common sense and knowledge taht I can keep myself sane through other avenues, even if I have to constantly work.

I suppose if I can't necessarily get away from work in this "alienated society," I can always try to balance what other time I have left in the day/week/month into something that I actually enjoy, can learn something about myself from. A camp that I have been going to/ working at for about ten years has helped me grasp the meaning of having a life other than the "hustle and bustle" of the real world. The campers that I have had, have left imprints on my life that I will never forget, and even though I don't want to do anything in my job that deals with kids, I think that we can all learn something from those who are younger than us. This past summer at camp, we made a video and posted it on youtube with the idea that if any of these kids had a message to send to the world, what would they say. As you will notice, none of them have messages of hurrying, none of them have messages that are driven by money. I hope that when I make my choice in the future about where I work, I keep these messages in mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3QdsI-qqxw&mode=related&search=