Where Art Thou Leisure Time?

Introduction

In this essay, I will be presenting the argument that contemporary society has possibly eroded or reduced free time and leisure activities because of the industrial revolution.

I will analyse whether or not workers in this modern era are better off than their pre-industrial equivalent. This essay will attempt to dispel the myth that capitalism has reduced human labor and freed us up.

What is Leisure?

“Leisure is rest from work, when we reinvigorate, or ‘recreate’, our energies to resume work” (Waters and Crook 1994. p. 352). Subjectively stating, leisure or free time is a colossal part of our lives, our who weekdays are consumed by the fact the weekend is getting closer, We call Wednesday ‘Hump Day’ to signify we have passed the halfway point to the weekend. Kiyosaki (2005) states that pre-industrial workers had an incredible amount of freedom, they worked for themselves and they worked when it was required. He goes on the say that with the onset of the industrial age, demand for employees grew and therefore the governments of the time started to change the mindset of the workers, adopting the Prussian system. Forcing the workers into factories and educating people that working for someone else is the most acceptable path.

I recall while I was growing up there was pressure to become almost ‘soldier like’ – to fall into line like the masses, while being educated and brought up. The education system tells you to study hard to get a job, “work well” and your reward is long hours of work for someone else’s gain. The schools and parents are conditioned to say the line”’ If you don’t study hard you won’t get a good job’. You’ll rarely hear ‘work hard and study well so you can one day become an entrepreneur”.

Pre-industrial Workers

“A pre-industrial society is one that directly uses, modifies, and/or tills the land as a major means of survival” (Andersen and Taylor, 2006. p.133).

(Horwitz, n.d.) notes that families before the industrial revolution play a significant part of a workers life. Horwitz also states that the family unit was the central unit of production, this included the need for all the family to work including children and as a result families were large.

It’s a myth that pre-industrial workers labored all day from dawn till dusk (“Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today’s”, n.d.). Also, James Pilkington, Bishop of Durham c. 1570 is quoted in the before mentioned web reference as saying “The laboring man will take his rest long in the morning; a good piece if the day is spent afore he come at his work”. This suggests that most workers didn’t work the long hours as many thought. Schor (1992) states that workers only worked the hours they needed to do and didn’t work long hours at all. Schor also states that they may have not been rich but had plenty of leisure.

“The distinction between work and leisure is not universal. In most pre-industrial societies the distinction is not made” (Reynolds 1981. p. 143). Reynolds (1981) goes on the state that the Australian Aboriginals do not have a word in their languages that expresses any difference between work and leisure.

Edgell (2006) states that workers and their skills were not highly valued as an economic status. Workers didn’t really have a say in politics or spiritual thought and did not enjoy wealth, or owning land. Between 1400-1600, Blanchard (1978) estimates that the average annual hours spent per year as a worker is 1980 hours.

Working in an Industrial Society

“An industrial society is one that uses machines and advanced technologies to produce and distribute goods and services” (Andersen and Taylor, 2006. p.133).

(Horwitz, n.d.) states that the industrial revolution brought a new concept of wage labor and work moved from the family home into factories. At first whole families moved into the factories, but as wages increased the females and children were able to leave the workforce.

Andersen and Taylor (2006) note that an industrial society relies on a large workforce with organisations such as unions. Andersen and Taylor also communicates that the task of holding the society together within a pre-industralised society was the church or religion. However, the industrial society and the onset of industrialization, this now falls on the economy, government and work providers.

In 1840, Woytinsky (1935) estimates that the average annual hours spent per year as a worker is 3105 hours.

Key Factor that led to Modernity

Edgell (2006) states the advent of the steam engine in 1785 lead to a shift in workforces. This saw animal, human, wind and water powered tools replaced with steam power to drive tools and machinery.

The Effect of Industrialisation

Edgell (2006) notes that work was moved out of the home and into factories. “In contrast to pre-industrial production, in which ‘the workman makes use of a tool’ in the new factory-based system, under the control of Capitalism ‘the machine makes use of him’” (Edgell 2006. p. 9). Edgell also states that the repetitive tasks of the machine operator makes the type of work extremely unfulfilling.

The Luddism movement was born, a group of people that were threatened by the industrial revolution. This led to violence and destructive outcomes against the factories and their owners.

Edgell also notes that eventually the worker relied less on the family unit for support but became reliant on the wage that was supplied by the employer. Work and life ceased to be driven by variation or independence and was replaced with strict timeframes of clocking ‘in and out” of factories states Edgell.

“The centrality of time to work in industrial capitalism led some to argue that the time piece rather that the steam engine symbolizes this era” (Edgell 2006. p. 12).

The Progression of Modernity

In the post modern era, machines have slowly become more advanced by automating many human processes through the development of computers. If history was to repeat post modern Luddist should now take arms, however, its not the case. People are now given new jobs in this new era, like complex reporting or data management instead of pressing buttons or winding machines. Information gathering is the new resource companies want to harness. Either way, pressure is placed upon workers just like the industrial factory workers of the ninetieth century, this time it’s the high stress of working with the complex computers. Long hours are still endured by workers.

Schor (1992) estimates working hours have reduced in 1987 to 1949 hours per year.

The hours are lower than 1840, the workers rights in the post modern era are fairer and workers enjoy higher wages and medium wealth unlike their ninetieth century predecessors. This leads to a busier schedule during a worker’s week.

“The working week is getting longer and many people work in excess of their recorded hours. This ‘tyranny of time’ hinders combining paid work with domestic life” (Hardill, Graham, Kofman. 2001. p. 90).

Blyton (1985) states that there is evidence that hours worked is decreasing, however nothing is for free, less hours has resulted in higher stress and the intensity of the tasks has increased. “Yet it still remains the case that most people are subject to rigid work time schedules offering little or no scope for exercising individual choice” (Blyton, 1985. p. 165).

Conclusion

It seems quite clear that there is one particular effect of modernity on society. Time or the loss of time is a silent predicament that can’t be seen like other effects of modernity. Problems like pollution, over crowding and crime are issues that are also side effects of the industrial revolution and everybody is always talking about them and looking for answers. All these problems are still here today and have typically got worst.

The industrial revolution started the process of timing and filling a workers day with repetitive tasks. The employers of today are driven by the same desire of their predecessors – money. Time is money and society is forced to reduce their leisure time and replace it with work.

The research has shown that there was an incredible liberty of time in the pre-industrial period. Workers enjoyed the freedom to work when it was required and life seemed simpler. The luxuries were not present that the industrial era created. One must look at the progress of tradition, has society advanced so that we are better off or should we have remained in the pre-industrial era? The key part of this research can be found in a statement by Edgell (2006). Freedom of no time restraints came at a terrible cost – the ability to articulate in one’s community, in pre-industrial times, a worker has no rights and no say. The industrial revolution stole the worker’s time as seen by hour’s worked in the 1840s, but something did change. A move from being reliant and controlled by religious or landlords of the pre-industrial era to a move to employee independence by receiving wages and education.

So are we better off and have we lost our leisure with the introduction of the industrial age? If we were still in 1840 I’d have to say NO, we are screwed. In the contemporary society we now live in -  we enjoy the comforts that the industrial revolution brought.

There seems to be no escape of the fact that we will always need a workforce that is trapped into repetitive cycle of working for an employee.

We now have options

In a post modern society we can chose to leave a workforce and strive to create our own fortune. We are educated and skilled. We can decide to use concepts from both the pre-industrial and the industrial eras. Harnessing the skills of technology and embracing the concept of being free to work  where and when we choose. A freelancer.

References

Waters. M. and R. Crook (1994). Sociology One. 3^rd edition, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne

Kiyosaki, R. (2005). Before You Quit Your Job. USA , TechPress.Inc

Horwitz, S. [n.d.]. Capitalism and the Family.  Retrieved Qctober, 2009, from the Freeman site: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/capitalism-and-the-family/

Reynolds, H. (1981). The other side of the Frontier. Vic Australia: Penguin

Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today’s. [n.d.].
Retrieved October, 2009, from the MIT Computer Science site: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html

Schor, J. (1992). The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. USA: BasicBooks

Andersen, M. and Taylor H (2006) Sociology: Understanding a diverse society. USA: Thompson Wadsworth

Edgell, S.  (2006) The Sociology of Work. London: SAGE Publications

Blanchard, I. (1978). Labour productivity and work psychology in the English mining industry, 1400-1600,  Economic History Review 31 (23), 1-24

Woytinsky, W.  (1935). Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. III. New York: Macmillan

Hardill, I, Graham, D and Kofman, E (2001). Human geography of the UK: an introduction, USA: Routledge

Blyton, P (1985). Changes in Work Time: an international review Great Britain: Billing & Sons