Activities

To determine when your assignments are due, refer to your Course Schedule.

1. Reading Questions: Each week, you should answer the questions for this week's readings. You can access the questions from the Lesson 2 - Reading Questions.
    
2. Analytical Paper: For your Lesson 2 analytical paper, please complete and submit either Option I or Option II below. Your submission should be 2 - 3 pages in length.
   
   Option I:  Meaning and Experience of Work
   
   You will need to draw from your past or present work experience to write this paper.  If you have never worked then you can interview a family member to gain information that will allow you to answer the following questions.

• What is the job you are using as your reference?  (i.e. human resource manager, child care provider)
• Do/did you like this job? Why? Why did you take this job?
• Is there another job you would rather be doing? What is that job and why?
• Are you satisfied or fulfilled with this job? Why?
• Are you alienated? Why?
• Do you feel exploited? Explain.
• How would you characterize the meaning of work for you?  Would you say it is closer to Marx’s or Smith’s view? Why?
• Drawing on Reich’s work describe how you see the global economy and the future of work affecting your work life.

Option II: International Work Hours Data Interpretation

The International Labour Organization reports Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM). To access the data, go to: http://kilm.ilo.org/KILMnetBeta/default2.asp

In the dropdown menu, select Table 6a – distribution of employed population by hours worked per week (by sex, age group and status). Select all countries ; 2005 (the most current year for which data are available); MF; and select all age groups. Click “View.”

Look at the column showing the share of persons working 40 or more hours and notice the countries where less than fifty percent of workers work 40 or more hours.  Then find the countries where more than seventy-five percent of workers work forty or more hours.

• Compare countries within the categories, and contrast them across categories.
• In which category is the U.S.?  Does it seem to fit with the countries in the category it is in?  Explain.
• Re-read the material on work and leisure (pp. 31-32) in the text.  Due to shorter work weeks and longer vacations, Americans could stop working in October and take the rest of the year off and we would then be working similar hours as our counterparts in western Europe.  What factors contribute to a culture of overwork?
• Consider why a culture of overwork exists to a greater degree in the U.S. than in other wealthy nations.

Submit your comments to the Lesson 2 - Dropbox.