Analyzing The Poem 'Thanksgiving'

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Gonzalez Professor Brock ENC 1102 Multiple Source Argument April 26, 2024 Word Count: Burnout In the poem “Thanksgiving” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox she wants people to have gratitude for the environment around them. The claim of “Thanksgiving” is to be thankful for the here and now. Throughout the poem, Ella mentions all the beauty we miss in everyday life. Some of the beauties that were mentioned are starry fields of white, joy that often appears, and the gift of life. Thanksgiving was written in 1903, but nowadays society has grown into a fast-paced, work-focused society. Overwork in America is a main contributor to all the reasons mentioned in “Thanksgiving”; but now it is more prevalent because society has quickened so fast. In 1903, the family …show more content…

Some of the mental health issues of overworking are depression, anxiety, work stress, and stress from family balance. According to PubMed Central, there is a link between depression and long hours at work. Working from 34 to 55 hours per week increased the chance of experiencing depression and anxiety for many of the volunteers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “Nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness. Workplace stress has been reported to cause 120,000 deaths in the US each year. Approximately 65% of U.S. workers surveyed have characterized work as being a very significant or somewhat significant source of stress in each year from 2019-2021. 83% of U.S. workers suffer from work-related stress and 54% of workers report that work stress affects their home life. For every $1 spent on ordinary mental health concerns, employers see a $4 return in productivity gains.” “Workplace stress and poor mental health can negatively affect workers through, job performance, productivity, work engagement and communication, physical capability and daily functioning.” …show more content…

is the only country in the Americas without a national parental leave benefit. The average is over 12 weeks of paid leave anywhere other than Europe, and over 20 weeks in Europe.” Now comparing American workers to the rest of the world with statistics from OECD stats, “U.S. workers worked an average of 1,811 hours per year. This is 470 more hours per year than German workers, 279 hours per year than the United Kingdom, and 300 more hours per year than French workers, and 204 more hours per year than Japanese workers.” To put into context how work focused our society has gotten, “the productivity per American worker has increased 430% since 1950.” There is also the issue of the cost of living going up, so people must work 4 times harder to get the same amount of space their parents would have, but that is just another factor of overworking just like inflation is. Arriving at a manageable solution is assessing what you can and cannot do. Try to decide what best fits your situation. In America it is so easy to be overworked from the myriad of issues today, but it’s even more important to not let the effects of overworking take a toll on your mental, physical, and family relationship

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