It may have been the case before that people thought hard work brought a better life, but now things have changed
New figures suggest that people no longer believe that working hard is the ticket to a better life.
A study carried out at the Policy Institute at King’s College London looked at people from the US, UK, France, Nigeria, China, Sweden, and Japan, and examined the importance people place on work.
Culture around work has shifted (Thomas Barwick / Getty)
While some people do still believe that hard work does help, around 49 percent of people in the UK responded that hard work and connections are equally important for success.
Meanwhile, 11 percent said that connections were more important.
In the US things were different, with 55 percent of people saying that hard work generally brings a better life.
The figures come as the culture around work is shifting, prompted by a combination of generational differences and the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Faced with working from home, many people realised that the walls don’t come tumbling down if people don’t treat work as the number one priority.
Many people no longer view work as the most important part of their lives (Monty Rakusen / Getty)
Not only that, but the increased work/life balance, while it works better for some jobs than others, showed a lot of employees that things could be different.
It’s not just that either, as a combination of wage stagnation and a rise in the cost of living from housing to energy bills to food means that many people, especially younger people, are left working hard and just getting by.
Taking to Reddit, one person wrote: “‘Working hard for a better life’ is the biggest scam.”
Professor Bobby Duffy worked on the study, and said that millennials have ‘become much more sceptical about prioritising work as they’ve made their way through their career’.
This is due to ‘the long-term economic and wage stagnation that will lead younger generations to question the value of work’.
Duffy is far from the only academic to be asking why people are questioning the value of work.
Some jobs are unpleasant but essential for society to function (Visoot Uthairam / Getty)
In 2018 anthropologist David Graeber published a book called Bullsh*t Jobs which took a look at jobs which don’t actually fulfil a useful social function or create any real value.
Having a job which is in some way fulfilling, whether morally, intellectually, materially, or in some lucky cases a combination, is good.
But having one like these could be harmful both socially and psychologically.
And it’s not even that hard work is bad, more hard work with the absence of a purpose behind it.
For example, gardening is hard work but there is a clear sense of pride and accomplishment when you successfully harvest your first crop of tomatoes after toiling over the vines.
With a lot of modern jobs falling into the categories that Graeber lists, the kind which are work for the sake of work, it’s maybe not surprising that people are becoming less enthusiastic about the role that work plays in their lives.
Featured Image Credit: Getty/Luis Alvarez/Getty/Thomas Barwick
