Saturday, February 3, 2018

Fewer people are waking up as beetles

The old days, people worked until they could not stand just to get by. Doesn't matter what they did, as long as they worked hard and were able to provide for their family, people were content, but were they? If we looked at how the workforce was 50 years ago and compare it to how it is today, we see an increasing number of entrepreneurs, artist, writers, photographers, musicians, filmmakers, etc. Gregor was working to make money but today, people work towards a passion. The job market has expanded greatly, there are more opportunities for people to make a living off of something they want to do, not something they have to do. Henceforth, fewer people are waking up as beetles.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

While I definitely agree that an increasing number of people are not "waking up as beetles" and are seeking a career, not just a job, I still find it noteworthy that most American workers are disengaged at work. According to this article (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-so-many-americans-hate-their-jobs/), 2/3 of American workers are disengaged at work, or worse. 51% of full-time employees aren't engaged at work, and another 16% are "actively disengaged." James Harter, chief scientist for workplace management at Gallup, says that if you’re unhappy at work, your boss may be mostly to blame. This point relates to Gregor's relationship with the chief clerk. But Harter also says that millenials want jobs that that allow them to “do what they do best,” grow professionally and offer a sense of purpose, among other things. While there are many people who dread getting out of bed to get to work, it is good that we aren't letting ourselves turn into money-making machines like Gregor.

Unknown said...

To add to Jun’s comment, I found a Gallup poll from October 2017 that said that 85% “hate their jobs.” Moreover, it said that most people aren’t not fulfilled by their jobs but are rather frustrated. Clearly, this relates to Gregor because he never got to gain a sense of fulfillment in the workplace nor with familial or personal relationships. So, even thought people have more liberty with their careers now, there still is a significant population that is going to work solely to pay bills and is not receiving any fulfillment (other than monetarily) from it.