The work ethic, then and now

Abstract

Beliefs about the work ethic vary over time and place. There is a general inclination for older people to believe that things were better---or at least more moral and more decent--when they were young. The story is told of an archaeologist coming across a cuneiform tablet deploring the decline of values and behavior among youth. A historian of work, Adriano Tilgher (1931, p. 142), commented in 1931 that "every country resounds to the lament that the work-fever does not bum in the younger generation, the post-war generation." The affluent generally complain that their subordinates, the less privileged, do not work hard and have lost the work ethic. A survey of members of the American Management Association found that 79 percent of them agreed that "the nation's productivity is suffering because the traditional American work ethic has eroded." This is an old story. In 1495, the English Parliament passed a statute on working hours, justifying their action in the preamble: "Diverse artifices and labourers ... waste much part of the day ... in the late coming unto their work, early departing therefrom, long sitting at breakfast, at their dinner and noon meal, and long time of sleep in afternoon."