Work Vs. Labor

Read Complete Research Material



Work vs. Labor

The summary has been written on Work vs. Labor form Robert Coles, Auden, and Terkel Studs which clearly describes the relationship between labor and work. It is very clear that Miss Hannah Arendt became the first major person to highlight the difference between the concepts of work and labor. It is very necessary for any man to remain happy, a man must first feel free and then only after getting this feeling, a person then tries to focus on his work. This is indeed quite true that the person would not be able to hear this thing, if he would be told by the society that it does not looks he is enjoying his work. In fact he wound not even feel satisfied when all his work and contributions would be ignored by the society. This is not the time when slavery is encouraged and people are not even rewarded that much as compare to the work they have done. These days, there is no concept of slavery at all and whatever works the person does these days not only have an economic value but it even has a social value. However, there is certainly a clear distinction between the concepts of work and labor which will be explained in details in further paragraphs.

First of all work can be anything what the person does. It can be his personal work related to his family, friends or relatives and secondly, the work can be professional. It is not necessary that work always has a connection with the person's professional life. That is where the role of wrong perception comes. Normally, when anyone says I'm doing a work, it certainly does not mean that he is talking about his profession or the job; it can be any kind of work. The least form of work can be even cleaning the toilet because it can be classified as a work. The other factor that is very important is that the meaning of the work cannot be classified in monetary terms. Like for instance when the person is doing any household work, he would not demand money for that work. It is his responsibility and he must fulfill his all his duties in a proper way. Therefore, this is clearly the basic description of the concept of work. Another important concept known as labor has totally different meaning. It can be said that the concept of labor clearly means that it contains the kind of work where money factor is there. A labor is always paid money for the work he does and it is purely based on professional setting. A labor is entitled to perform a given task whether or not he enjoys it because he is given a wage or salary in reward. Therefore, there is a clear distinction between the concepts of work and labor (Becker, 493).

However, the opposite of the work is enjoyment. When a person is involved in any sports activity, then he must enjoy doing it ...
Related Ads