Work, non-work and in-between

Abstract

The central issue we will deal with in this chapter is that of unemployment; its psychological meaning and consequences. There are two reasons for dealing with such a topic in some detail as part of a book on the world of work: (1) the threat and the experience of unemployment is becoming part of the life of a worker in the industrialised world with increasing frequency and (2) understanding the nature of that experience can give us a unique and important insight into the place of work in a person’s life.

‘The “work ethic” holds that labor is good in itself; that a man or woman becomes a better person by virtue of the act of working.’

President Richard Nixon Labor Day 1971

‘You can’t eat for eight hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight hours a day - all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy.’

William Faulkner

‘Work? It gets me oot the hoose.’

Unidentified Glaswegian