Entering into a new year and a new election season, the question on many people’s minds is, “Who or what is going to save our economy?” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are 13.3 million unemployed – 5.7 million in the category of the ‘long-term unemployed’. In the continual search for a solution perhaps it is important to consider our neglected concept that rests in opposition, and makes sense of, our idea of work: leisure.
It may be surprising that in this trepid economic landscape anyone would suggest an analysis of leisure as way to combat hard times. An old-school Catholic philosopher of the early 1900’s – Josef Pieper – wrote about the necessity of leisure to construct a healthy culture. He also draws out the importance of leisure to our working life: our understanding of what it is to work relies on what it is to not work. With the tally of those ‘not working’ at staggering numbers, it is immanent that we consider the nature of our labor/leisure dichotomy in contemporary America.
Browsing the spread of forums devoted to the unemployed, you find countless stories of difficulty supporting family, returning to school, house foreclosures, debt, and existential grief. For instance on suddenlyunemployed.com – a support forum for those hit by our economic plummet – the high trafficked story of Gasper ends saying, “Im applying for anything that is even slightly related to what Ive done including jobs I know are less paying than what Im used to making…Is there no relief in sight? Im feeling pretty hopless right now.” What is lacking in these forums are discussions of the unemployeds’ dream jobs, the part of industry that really interests them, or what new hobbies and skills they have picked up during this downtime. Of course, when someone is down-and-out, it is hard to expect such positive thinking; however, it highlights the extreme poles our working and leisure life occupy. Instead of taking time to re-evaluate oneself and the worth of one’s labor, we wait in a state of inertial dismay for an application response.
For many other Americans the search for employment has halted as 2.6 million are only marginally attached to the workforce (i.e. still want a job, but quit looking for more than 4 weeks) and another 1.1 million have become ‘discouraged workers’ (defined by BLS as those not searching for work because they believe there are no jobs for them). This leaves one wondering what the lives of these individuals must comprise. The vision is frightening, though it has the potential to be uplifting, depending on how it is they fill their lives of leisure. Although, lack of fulfillment applies to those with jobs too, as Mark Kingwell points out in his essay Language of Work: “The workaholic colonizes his own despair at the perceived emptiness of life – its non-productivity – by filling it in with work.” Besides a paycheck, for many, the difference between being employed and unemployed is sitting in an office chair or sitting on a couch completing otiose tasks. Holding a steady job is a common form of life for most American’s, but why is it that we work?
Assuming a 40-hour workweek over 43 years (ages 22-65), the average American will spend 86,000 hours at their job – an investment worth serious consideration. When this slice of existence is replete with servile work and meetings, the desire to evade work becomes a high priority. The monotony of most white-collar labor is productive on a chase of the sensational to balance out the cold functionary processes of office work. Mindless work rests comfortably alongside mindless leisure. It’s nearly a platitude that the corporate labor force lacks the ethos of an artist or community servant. In most cases, the answer to the above question is money or life security. So what’s the alternative?
Immersed in a leisure life that addresses and attempts to understand the deeper questions of life’s values, personal identity, and what is worth 86,000 hours of self-consumption through labor, it becomes hard to just succumb to entering the iron cage. Whatever job in which you find yourself, the point is that your personal life is where you grapple with how you fit into culture with your close friends and family – work is where you express that. Whether you’re a gardener, a chef, or a steel worker, if you care about your contributions as they relate to you, then you have found more success than money can provide. So my advice to the unemployed (or perhaps future unemployed): use the time wisely. Figure out what you’re passionate about and what job may bring that to fruition. Then your applications won’t be a mere matter of credentials; rather, an exposition of what you love and why they’d be silly not to hire you.
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