What Are You Willing to Sacrifice?
What motivates you to work? What makes you push through and throughout the challenges that come your way? What is your driving factor in being successful? Motivation is something a lot of people in America struggle to find when it comes to working. People think that everything they do will be fun and easy, but the truth is that you have to push through the tough situations to feel the gratification of completing it. Setting goals and creating personal rewards for finishing long, hard, or tedious tasks can be a great way to motivate yourself. Everyone has their way of balancing their work and leisure, but recently there has been a push to bring leisure to the work world and there have been very mixed opinions on this. America is working towards a happier work environment and looking to make people less stressed at work. But what does this mean in terms of pay or the benefits they will receive outside of work. Although it may seem a little extreme this push for happiness over motivation could lead to less motivated, stressed, and unhappy people, in America. A lot of people like to work merit-based because they will have rewards for their work and that will push them to be productive.
Not everything in life will be easy and fun, people can not expect that in everything they do. Most people in America expect that they will one day have a job that they will go to every day and probably not be happy all the time, but they know they will always have the weekend to relax. People use the thought of a non-stressful relaxing weekend as motivation to get through the workweek. A Harvard study done on millionaires and happiness displayed that, “people with a net worth of $10 million are significantly happier than those in the $1 million to $2 million range.” (Cohan). The study also reported that the people who worked for their money were happier than those who inherited or married into it. A lot of generations were raised on the values of hard work, the newer generations like Generation Z are living in the world of tech and participation trophies and expect life to be easy or they become unmotivated. A recent study has found that “People ages 16 to 25, commonly known as Generation Z, consider themselves the hardest-working generation yet won't tolerate being forced to work when they don't want to” (Wilkie). What this is saying is that the younger generations expect to make the rules in some cases they think they are superior but compared to every other generation we are lazy. As the world goes on different societal norms will form, and that’s something that we have to accept but, is hard work and merit something the world wants to leave behind? America was built on the foundations of hard work and a lot of people still have that idea instilled in them so why not continue.
What drives people to work? What pushes people to be productive? This answer is different for everyone, but it has been shown that people are motivated by goals and a finish line of sorts. In a study done about what motivates people to work, it was shown that “about 25% of the respondents (controlling for intersection) mentioned one or more of wages, health benefits, or dental benefits as among their top three reasons for taking the job” (Howes). When looking at this statistic, 25% does not seem like much but, it is the new normal for today’s generation. People are putting money lower on their lists of priorities. Not that it is a bad thing to not care about monetary things but in the long run when you need to pay bills, start a family, and in retirement, you will not have as much saved money. Another point that goes with motivation would be the goals, people set for themselves. Like mentioned before the younger generations have less concern for money, but they still care about moving forward and reaching goals, “Younger workers indicated that their commitment and motivation at work are influenced more by promotion opportunities and flexible working arrangements than by base pay” (“The 'Next Generation': Prepare for Different Priorities”). This shows that they take into consideration what they do outside of work, unlike older generations who were raised to make work the primary focus. Again this is not necessarily bad but, look at it like this, they are taking lower pay to have more time off, but will they be able to afford the leisure time if they don’t have the money to pay for it? These points are not trying to tell people what to do but they are something to consider. Motivation in the workplace is extremely important in the work world. The world is only able to function because of the people that put in the long hard hours and the jobs nobody wants.
Happiness and success. Do they go hand in hand? Can you have both? Everyone has their definition of success because everyone has their own goals and in theory, when you are successful you are happy. The common misconception is that the people who take the job that pays less did it because it was a more enjoyable job or that they would be happy at work. However, “the least financially secure employees and, linked to this, less satisfied with their social lives too”(Warren). This puts to rest the idea that people with well-paying jobs are not as happy as people who have less paying jobs. When people have money they are less stressed and have to worry about a lot of the problems that would arise if you were financially unstable. According to USnews America ranks among the top countries in the world having the “world’s most dominant economic and military power”(“The Best Countries in the World”). The United States is pretty powerful, however, “Americans are among the most stressed people in the world” (Chokshi). Is this a bad thing though? Based on these statistics, stress can be a good thing sometimes. When people are stressed out sometimes it makes them work harder. A recent study done by researchers at the University of Toronto it was reported that, “higher stress levels can actually facilitate increased productivity.”(BioSpace). When you’re at work and you have a deadline you will put everything you have in you to work to the end. Sometimes a little stress is good for you. Whatever way people find success and happiness is essential because this is what motivates them to work. It goes even further than that too because when people are happy they spend money and invest in themselves, which works in favor of the economy.
George Orwell had a lot of fears when it came to the future regarding society, government, and more. In today’s world, we have seen many examples of his fears coming true. One theme in particular in his book 1984 was the balance of work and leisure. In the book work was something that was controlled by the government everyone worked for The Party. The only “fun” that the society had in the book was coordinated by the government and used as a manipulation tactic. The main character of the book, Winston, went on to say, “The choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better”(Orwell 262). This shows that people were willing to sacrifice true happiness and freedom to live a sustainable life. Even though they were living in a controlled environment they accepted it because they knew they were safe from the outside. This was the government’s way to force society to rely on them. In today’s world, the government is not this aggressive when it comes to taking care of society, but there is the debate of what people are willing to sacrifice to be safe and happy. Whether it be taking a pay cut for more time off or having to look to the government for protection people decide what is most important to them and what they want to prioritize.
When it comes to work and play everyone needs to find their balance, but when making this decision they need to consider what makes them the most productive and what is the most practical. This might not always be a fun way, but it will be a motivator. You need to earn that leisure to make it that much better. People come to America to work hard and they know that will not always be easy but the benefits of working hard will pay off much more in the long term than they will short term.
Works Cited
“The Best Countries in the World.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 2020, www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/overall-rankings.
BioSpace. “How to Use Work-Related Stress to Your Advantage.” BioSpace, BioSpace, 16 May 2018, www.biospace.com/article/how-to-use-work-related-stress-to-your-advantage/.
Chokshi, Niraj. “Americans Are Among the Most Stressed People in the World, Poll Finds.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Apr. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/americans-stressful.html.
Cohan, Peter. This Harvard Study of 4,000 Millionaires Revealed Something Surprising about Money and Happiness. 14 Dec. 2017, www.inc.com/peter-cohan/will-10-million-make-you-happier-harvard-says-yes-if-you-make-it-yourself-give-it-away.html.
Howes, Candace. “Love, Money, or Flexibility: What Motivates People to Work in Consumer-Directed Home Care?” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 July 2008, doi.org/10.1093/geront/48.Supplement_1.46.
“The 'next Generation': Prepare for Different Priorities.” Gale General OneFile, Institute of Management & Administration, Sept. 2003, go-gale-w9ba.orc.scoolaid.net/ps/i.do?p=ITOF.
Orwell, George. 1984,Signet Classic, 1977.
Warren, Tracey. “Working Part-Time: Achieving a Successful 'Work-Life' Balance?” Gale General OneFile, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., Mar. 2004, go-gale-w9ba.orc.scoolaid.net/ps/i.do?p=ITOF.
Wilkie, Dana. “Generation Z Says They Work the Hardest, But Only When They Want To.” SHRM, SHRM, 16 Aug. 2019, www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/gen-z-worries-about-work-skills.aspx.