Friday, June 04, 2004

The Work Ethic - Defining the Definition

Ok I'm not even going to attempt it ... well not all in one go. A quick Google search reveals only two significant foci of the internet community's obsession with the concept:
  1. Employee focussed desire to shrug off wage-slavery
  2. Employer focussed obsession with exacting the full pound of flesh
Eh? do the search yourself, if you want to. The headline link is just an example of a sparsely served genre ... not an affirmation of a specific endorsement. I'm looking for answers, too! OK? So first principles is always the best place to start. Work, as a human activity, has to be defined so here goes. Work is any activity that has a specific goal that -- if not achieved -- causes the effort involved in the attempt to be regarded as wasted. Put another way, all animal activity can be divided into 2 simple flavours: work and leisure. At the most basic level this means eating and sleeping. Oh ... bloody hell ... I need to lay down ...