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The relationship between work and life
The relationship between work and life
The relationship between work and life
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Tim Kreider’s “The ‘Busy’ Trap” from The New York Times (June 30, 2012) explores the different worlds of both, the busy and the free. His article evaluates and persuades the American working class to stop for a second and reassess their constantly busy lifestyles. His knowledge comes from his own and other’s life experiences. Relating on a personal level, Kreider encourages his audience to recognize that being busy may make them feel important, but they are sacrificing all their valuable time life has given them. In fact, he influences them to think about how much stress their work is, and how it most likely won’t amount to anything. He does this through logos, providing personal anecdotes and common knowledge; ethos, demonstrating that he …show more content…
has experience in the busy world, exemplifying his personality, and addressing a counterargument; and pathos, writing in a conversational style through his use comparisons. Kreider incorporates his logos early on in his article to provide his readers with insight from others. Towards the beginning of his paper, Kreider uses a story about a friend who moved from New York City to a small town in France to escape her bustling hectic lifestyle of the ever-growing and never sleeping city. Kreider states that, “[his friend] described herself as happy and relaxed for the first time in years.” In providing this detail, Kreider contrasts how a low-key small town life is more rewarding than the quick moving pace of city life. Also by mentioning a statement from his friend that agrees with his own argument, Kreider’s point becomes more credible. Another story Kreider offers his readers, is about a girl he knew who could not leave work for lunch in case they needed her for something, even though she worked for, according to Kreider “an entertainment magazine whose raisons d'être was obviated when ‘menu’ buttons appeared on remotes.” It is common knowledge that most people rely on television remotes rather than a TV guide this day in age. Hence, Kreieder displays the absurdity of how meaningless and pointless most work actually is. Therefore, his logos effectively reaffirms his main claim and appeals to his readers by providing the stories of real people in real situations. Kreider establishes his own authority through his use of ethos.
He is able to use his own experience as proof of his credibility. Kreider begins establishing himself by analyzing his childhood. He states, “[he] was a member of the latchkey generation” and “those free hours became the model for how [he] wanted to live the rest of [his] life.” (Kreider) In making this comment Kreider asses the correlation of childhood activities with adulthood lifestyles. Through noticing the trend of how time given for creativity leads to more knowledge and productivity, Kreider acknowledges even the youngest of workers. The mention of being a latchkey kid also gives him the wisdom of being an older and more experienced worker. According to Kreider, “every morning [his] in-box was full of e-mails asking [him] to do things [he] did not want to do.” By giving his readers this personal background, Kreider shows understanding and experience in the busy world himself. Furthermore by stating there was not enjoyment in this busy time in his life, Kreider stays true to his argument. In presenting these examples, Kreider builds up his own authority, which makes his own statements more meaningful and …show more content…
impactful. Kreider also effectively forms ethos by illustrating his own personality. Kreider claims, "And if you call me up and ask whether I won’t maybe blow off work...I will say, what time?" In making this statement, Kreider builds his own character development to show that he is genuine to his belief. Being a person that is willing to spend time with others, Kreider wants his readers to understand that he practices what he preaches. In doing this, Kreider gains more trust in his reader adding to his ethos. Another way Kreider uses ethos in his article is by addressing a counterargument.
He acknowledges that being busy may be a nice complaint to have and even understands that, “it makes you feel important, sought after and put-upon.” For this reason, Kreider connects with his readers by understanding others thoughts. Through making this connection, Kreider comes across more trustworthy, which enables his readers to listen more openly to his argument. Then he admits to how “intolerable” being busy actually is. In stating this opinion, Kreider maintains his opinion of being against the busy lifestyle. Since Kreider effectively defends a valid point in argument of his own views, he achieves a copious amount of
credibility. Kreider also effectively builds pathos through using comparisons. In Kreider’s view, “[Busy people] schedule in time with friends the way students with 4.0 G.P.A’s make sure to sign up for community service.” Through providing this metaphor, Kreider connotes perfectionism by appealing to his audience’s background knowledge of how 4.0 students are known for their lack of a social life. Krieder is therefore making the connection that busy people do not know how to make real friends just like 4.0 students. He uses this connection to express his belief that the only reason busy people schedule time with friends is to protect their reputation, rather than for the purpose of enjoyment. Kreider later shows his own frustration with friends that are too busy. Kreider states, “[His friend’s] busyness was like some vast churning noise through which [his friend] was shouting at [Kreider], and [Kreider] gave up trying to shout back over it.” By using this hyperbole, Kreider succeeds in portraying his level of irritation he has with busy lifestyles dictating and consuming peoples’ lives. This hyperbole effectively exhibits the overall flaws in what busyness can do in peoples’ friendships. Kreider also adds to his comparisons, “Idleness…is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body” In other words, Kreider states that free time is essential to one’s health. This draws his readers to question their own health due to their ever busy and stressful schedules. Thus, Kreider’s pathos efficiently sustains his main claim of his article and hits his readers on an emotional level, because he connects his ideas with life experiences and paints a picture of his own frustration of the busy lives around him. Thus, Kreider successfully defends his point that being busy is indeed, a “trap.” As a result, Kreider instils the values that a happy life is filled with free time and loved ones. By analyzing his work, his success is due to his logos, basing true stories on well-known facts; ethos, providing experience, character development, and a counter-argument as a source of credibility; and pathos, appealing on an emotional level through his strong use of diction. By providing a more than fair amount rhetorical appeals especially a substantial amount of ethos, it would be difficult for one to side against his ideas. Therefore, his argument comes off strong and convincing, which gives his article more than enough potential to persuade his audience.
Mike Rose describes his first-hand experience of blue collar workers in his monograph “Blue Collar Brilliance”. Patiently, he observed the cooks and waitresses whilst he waited for his mother’s shift to end. He noticed how his mother called out abbreviated orders, tag tables and so on. Mike Rose describes how his mother, Rosie, took orders whilst holding cups of coffee and removed plates in motion. Rose observed how her mother and other waiters worked and concluded that blue collar work “demands both body and brain” (Rose 274). He describes that Rosie devised memory strategies and knew whether an order was being delayed. She was assiduous in sequencing and clustering her tasks and solved any technical or human problem simultaneously. Managing
Marks, L. (2006). The Loss of Leisure in a Culture of Overwork. Spirit of Change Magazine.
Although, Conventional wisdom dictates that the age at which children started work was connected to the poverty of the family. Griffith presents two autobiographies to put across her point. Autobiography of Edward Davis who lacked even the basic necessities of life because of his father’s heavy drinking habit and was forced to join work at a small age of six, whereas the memoir of Richard Boswell tells the opposite. He was raised up in an affluent family who studied in a boarding school. He was taken out of school at the age of thirteen to become a draper’s apprentice.
We all know that most people hate their jobs. Work is seen as something we have to do, and very lucky few seem to find a job that we enjoy. How we feel about work, and what we do for a living, in many ways helps to define who we are and who we are going to become. Having seen actual people share their perspectives and view points on “working for a living” helps us see ourselves and rethink our future. Overall, Studs Terkel helps flash- back into America's history and see the changes that America ans it’s people have gone through.
The inability to achieve “work-life balance” has become a major focus for workplace equality activists. When this topic is brought about it is primarily used to describe how woman cannot have a work and home life but instead are forced to choose. Richard Dorment took on this point of interest from a different perspective in his article “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All” published with esquire. Going against the normal trend he describes how women are not the only ones put into the same sacrificial situations, but instead that men and women alike struggle to balance work and home. Dorment opens up by saying “And the truth is as shocking as it is obvious: No one can have it all.” In doing so Richard Dorment throws out the notion that one
Curry agrees that work is a job that takes over a person’s life and claims, “The job penetrates every aspect of life. Americans don’t exercise they work out” (15). In his perspective, a job has created this sense of “working out”, in which not the actual going to the gym to workout is being used, but jobs are the place of working out. In his mind working out at the gym has been replaced with typical long houred jobs. This is the case for many people, including the life of Ehrenreich in which the juggling of two jobs, consists of her whole day. She proclaims:
The poem describes workers to be “Killing the overtime ‘cause the dream is your life, / Refusing to take holidays or go home to your spouse, / But for many the overtime comes, ‘cause the work is not done. / Deadlines to be met. So you continue to dream like a war vet, / Having flashbacks to make you shiver and scream” (Jones, stanza 7, lines 2-6). Jones reinforces that overworking for an incentive of money does not give one a sense of gratification, and it also distracts them from the values that should matter more to them than anything else. Both Kohn and Jones have a similar approach to showing the reader the effect that overworking can have on a person, and how it will change their values in life, causing unhappiness. Many students go through school dispirited and do not join various clubs and activities for their own enjoyment. A friend of Kohn’s who was also a high school guidance counsellor had a student with ‘…amazing grade and board scores. It remained only to knock out a dazzling essay on his college applications that would clinch the sale. “Why don’t we start with some books that
The article reads, “Kit noticed, during a recent guest lecture at UC Berkeley, that at least half of her students were typing… In other words: multitasking, available to their friends no matter where they were, and instantly accessing free information.” Throughout the article, they describe Gen Y’s connection with technology and how it differs from any other generation’s connection to the internet and the world around them. By using her own personal experience, she is validating those claims and providing readers with an example of how that connection looks to outsiders in real
Time allocation, or time management, is a trait that everyone is capable of. However, there are people who tend to manage their time better than others. People often find themselves wasting time on unimportant activities. The time wasted can depend on the type of person they are, though. Say there is a successful businessman. That man is less likely to waste his time doing something unimportant than a teenager who doesn’t have their priorities straight. In the story, ‘Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”, Tom Benecke struggles with balancing the time spent on his work and time spent with his wife. In our generation, technology is all around us. Whether it be phones, computers, or video games, people are wasting away their lives doing activities
This is in total disregard of the normal system of conformity that requires people to follow the set rules and regulations. The world has therefore turned into a Totalitarian community that is run by the “Tick tock Man,” and his clock (Ellison 877). The emergency need for punctuality in the future clearly creates an obsession that jeopardizes the need for freedom in conducting the day to day activities as well as one’s personal space. This in itself is an ironical situation because there is an unexpected switching of roles between man and time. Prior this obsession of time consciousness, man used to control time management but now, time is managing all the important aspects of
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
He expresses about his mother working at the restaurant is what made him and this article credible. He got to witness and experience his mom and her “waiting brilliance” up close and personal (Rose, 273). He also states, “I’ve since studied the working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work demands of both the body and the brain” (274). In this statement he establishes his own credibility as a source of authority on this issue. Rose, the author, wants to open social minds by showing “mental activity” (279) required in blue-collar work is still under-recognized and undervalued by society. The blue-collar workers are not as valued as they deserve but the capability they have is not less than other high-level workers, even sometimes it’s more than
Authors create logical fallacies all the time without readers knowing it. Tim Kreider's 'The Busy Trap,' is an example that has a few of these fallacies. Kreider shares his opinions regarding how everyone in this world is totally obsessed with unnecessary and ominous tasks. In his article, Kreider’s paints a picture of what society views as 'busy' and even talks about the negative impact it can have on someone’s mental health and well being. Kreider states that in order for people to feel accomplished and productive, they think they must have something going on every hour of the day and week, including weekend. Kreider not only targets adults who have fallen victim to the increase in the busy lifestyle but children as well who have taken
Though being exposed to technologies like computers from an early age may have given us the ability to do things more efficiently, technology has also made us less dependent on ourselves. Claudia Wallis, editor for Time, in her article makes known in The Multitasking Generation, “That level of multiprocessing and interpersonal connectivity is now so commonplace that it’s easy to forget how quickly it came about. Fifteen years ago, most home computers weren’t even linked to the Internet” (63). There are many things that students are able to do on their computer that their parents aren't even aware of or that the parents couldn’t do themselves. My parents always tell of how looking through the library’s card catalog and searching for the books they needed only to find out that they have been taken out. Computers have allowed us to do many things faster for example, write much faster than a typewriter or pen and paper and correct typing errors without starting over. The computers and technology we now have makes it easier to almost anything and with technology so easily at your fingertips it o...
Nowadays, people get so pre-occupied with their external environment that they don’t feel attention to themselves. This typical scenario has been the concern for almost every person in this planet. The ones who are affected are mostly those who belong to the urbane society. Professionals, self-employed individuals and students belong to this social order. The paradox of our time as shown here affects us always in our daily activities. We tend to forget ourselves and pay much interest on our day-to-day work.