Home Recreation: A Way of Life Modern society tends to fragmentize life Sports Films History Baseball: The Components of Profit Estrogen and Antagonists Diet and Nutrition The Vitamins Vitamin B Vitamin C Vitamin D Vitamin E Let the stars size up your shopping style Astrology: Magic or Science? Jamaica For Cyclists Maine: Earliest Inhabitants The passion for football Changes in Body Weight The Metabolism and Energy Transformations of Healthy Man Normal Activity Restricted by the Conditions of Experiments Metabolism During Specific Activities and Movements Public Colleges M to N N to Z What Is It We Want? Directed Thinking On Being Oneself Economics Is a Branch of Biology Life Is Also Frustration How Goods are Bought and Sold Leisure and work The Pecuniary Standard of Living The Uses of Time Teaching People to Want Things Art as leisure The Loss of Privacy The Great Emptiness	Leisure and work On this there must be universal agreement, that the dominant motif among all cultures -- no matter how they express it -- is selfpreservation as a collective group. Segments of the population, such as the aged among the Eskimos, may be culturally defined as expendable. However, it is the whole of society that always seeks to remain as a going-entity. This is far from saying that the whole of work is simply a matter of keeping alive. In work man has gone much further than mere sustenance; in it he has found the core of his life. Work in its largest perspective is closely tied in with his relation to family, to other persons, to nature, to objects, to movement, to concepts of God, and to the meaning of life itself. Its impact is on the state of his freedom and responsibility, his position in the esteem of others, his particular relation in the production of goods, his attitude toward government and authority, his mental capacities and achievements, his material level, his circle of acquaintanceships and friends, his concept of himself as a person, and his "chances in life" or the chances of his mate and children. Hence it is folk wisdom at its best and not idle curiosity that asks of the stranger, "And what do you do?" As one writer suggest, "Work is not part of life, it is literally life itself." That the nature of work and its relation to nonwork have been undergoing significant change can hardly be disputed. There is no doubt that the religion of work for the sake of work has given mankind peace, calm, and joy. The methodical discipline of professional work binds into a strong sheaf the scattered forces of the soul, frees men from doubts, anxieties, preoccupations, and sets the soul moving in a fine powerful rhythm which tends to perpetuate itself because of the very joy it gives...it gives him at all times the divine joy of creation.... There is confusion in a culture when these familiar values are shaken and leisure values begin to develop. C. Wright Mills notes the following in his White Collar: The American Middle Classes: What is psychologically important in this shift to mass leisure is that the old middle-class work ethic -- the gospel of work -- has been replaced in the society of employees by a leisure ethic, and this replacement has involved a sharp, almost absolute split between work and leisure Now work self is judged in terms of leisure values. The sphere of leisure provides the standards, by which work is judged; it lends to work such meanings as work has. Although the present writer inclines to agree with Mills' interpretation-leisure can produce values as well as work -- our obligation here is not to deplore or applaud these developments but to explore the relevant facts and consequences. To relate work to leisure, we may consider the intrinsic and extrinsic patterns of work: work as work, then work in its widest implications in the culture. Relation to the raw materials of work As the first of these intrinsic matters, consider the impact of materials of work upon leisure patterns. The coal miner stays in the area of the mines, despite modern transportation services that are available to whisk him elsewhere in vacation days. His main pattern and style of living centers about hills and generally crowded small-town life. Likewise, the worker on ships or in some phase of work related to transport on water is limited to activities that associate his liking for water with the traditional activities of swimming, fishing, and boating. The farmer has at hand the facilities for visiting other families and the natural setting for hunting; and because of rural preoccupation with the forces of nature we may expect a religious emphasis, with many recreational activities developing therefrom. On the other hand, the electronics worker who is a specialist in making delicate parts for radio, telephone, or television may more likely be found with many other experts near scientific laboratories, larger factories, multiple transportation, and the heart of other electrical development. All this points inevitably toward the large city and, in turn, suggests a whole range of leisure activities which the city provides in a unique way: the museum, the professional baseball team, the symphony concert, the race track, the extensive public library. Here also are found convenient transportation facilities to distant points or the potential fellowship of persons interested in every conceivable hobby. Thus the nature of leisure behavior is never entirely a matter of free choice nor the resultant of one set of variables such as income. The pattern may be considerably limited or defined in the location of home brought about by the nature of work. Work, in turn, is located in good measure in relation to the materials. The lawyer, the doctor, and many other professional persons dealing in human services are not so limited. They work wherever other people are to be found, although here again there are such factors as concentrations of people, the presence of special kinds of clienteles, and the location of associated services. There are types of workers -- ministers, teachers, policemen, storekeepers -- who are found everywhere and will often deliberately move to an area in which the agencies for the good life (as perceived by them) exist. Whenever we find persons who, at considerable effort or expense, leave their places of work during holidays or off-periods in order to search out the advantages of a wholly different possibility of leisure, there we have a particularly fruitful kind of person or activity to study. For instance, two skiers are not the same for a scientific understanding if one lives in the area and the second has traveled several hundred miles. It is true that transportation has affected the situation remarkably, but research in travel patterns must explore the way in which travel facilities are left unused by some or used differently and with a variety of motivations by others. Social structure of work A second intrinsic aspect of work that touches directly on leisure patterns of workers is the type of struchture found within a plant, office, or industry. Almost 11 million Americans were self-employed in 1950 as farmers, businessmen, professional persons, independent craftsmen, merchants, and the like. They are never so closely dependent on other persons who work as are the millions employed by industry. The difference goes deep, indeed, and touches on such issues as how free the merchant feels he is compared to the employee who may make more money but who also has to take orders or punch a clock. Different motivations may be present for the self-employed; perhaps the corner druggist values his security, relying on no one for a job from month to month; perhaps the steel worker values the protection of his union; the military career man enjoys his advantageous retirement plan. Most studies of social structure in work have come out of the factory, beginning on a large scale with the studies of Mayo. There is no need here to tell the story in detail. The over-all result, however, has been a change in several directions of the attitude toward workers by progressive management. First, a new accent on human relationships has developed, so that the worker is observe in relation to his fellow worker and supervisor as well as to machine. Second, there has been a growing realzation that the factory or industry is not only hiring a foreman, electrician, or timekeeper but a Tom Jones who has a family, goes to church, likes baseball, and lives a whole life in which work is only a part; that his other interests and roles affect his efficiency as a worker; and that as a whole man he bases his rewards in work on feelings of security and recognition as well as on material reward. Last, there is a new feeling, quite different from the Christian motive that often marked paternalism among pioneer industrialists, that industry must attract and hold its workers by assuming some share of responsibility in promoting the general welfare of the whole community as a place that is lived in as well as worked in. These realizations have taken many forms, from profit sharing to baseball teams in industry and from housing units and the construction of attractive villages to comprehensive recreation programs, including symphony orchestras and class piano lessons.