Work (human activity)

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Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), or an occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations.^[1] In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contributes (along with other factors of production) towards the goods and services within an economy.^[2]

Work has existed in all human societies, either as

.

Cultures and individuals across history have expressed a wide range of attitudes towards work. Besides objective differences, one

.

Some people have also engaged in critique of work and expressed a wish to reduce or abolish it entirely, for example in Paul Lafargue in his book The Right to Be Lazy,^[4] David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs, or The Abolition of Work by Bob Black. Real world programs to eliminate the economic necessity for lifelong work first emerged through the concept of retirement, and have more recently been extended to all adults through experimentation with universal basic income.

Work can take many different forms, as varied as the environments, tools, skills, goals, and institutions around a worker. This term refers to the general activity of performing tasks, whether they are paid or unpaid, formal or informal. Work encompasses all types of productive activities, including employment, household chores, volunteering, and creative pursuits. It is a broad term that encompasses any effort or activity directed towards achieving a particular goal.

Because sustained effort is a necessary part of many human activities, what qualifies as work is often a matter of context. Specialization is one common feature that distinguishes work from other activities. For example, a

are also not typically considered work.

While a later gift, trade, or payment may retroactively affirm an activity as productive, this can exclude work like volunteering or activities within a family setting, like parenting or housekeeping. In some cases, the distinction between work and other activities is simply a matter of common sense within a community. However, an alternative view is that labeling any activity as work is somewhat subjective, as Mark Twain expressed in the "whitewashed fence" scene of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.^[5]

Humans have varied their work habits and attitudes over time. As humans are

emphasized the moral and personal advantages of hard work.

The periodic re-invention of

retains traces of expectations of sustained, concentrated work, even in affluent societies.

Forms of work take on changes over time in response to technological and societal changes.^[7] According to a 2024 study, the majority of current employment in the United States was in occupations that had been introduced since 1940.^[7]

There are several ways to categorize and compare different kinds of work. In economics, one popular approach is the three-sector model or variations of it. In this view, an economy can be separated into three broad categories:

• Primary sector, which extracts food, raw materials
  , and other resources from the environment
• utilities
• Tertiary sector
  , which provides services and helps administer the economy

In complex economies with high specialization, these categories are further subdivided into

]

Another common way of contrasting work roles is ranking them according to a criterion, such as the amount of skill,

skilled trades

is one example with a long history and analogs in many cultures.

Societies also commonly rank different work roles by perceived status, but this is more subjective and goes beyond clear progressions within a single industry. Some industries may be seen as more prestigious than others overall, even if they include roles with similar functions. At the same time, a wide swathe of roles across all industries may be afforded more status (e.g.

.

Other social dynamics, like how labor is compensated, can even exclude meaningful tasks from a society's conception of work. For example, in modern market-economies where

]

At a political level, different roles can fall under separate institutions where workers have qualitatively different power or rights. In the extreme, the least powerful members of society may be stigmatized (as in untouchability) or even violently forced (via slavery) into performing the least desirable work. Complementary to this, elites may have exclusive access to the most prestigious work, largely symbolic sinecures, or even a "life of leisure".

Unusual Occupations

In the diverse world of work, there exist some truly bizarre and unusual occupations that often defy conventional expectations. These unique jobs showcase the creativity and adaptability of humans in their pursuit of livelihood.^[8]

Individual workers require sufficient health and resources to succeed in their tasks.

As living beings, humans require a baseline of good health, nutrition, rest, and other physical needs in order to reliably exert themselves. This is particularly true of physical labor that places direct demands on the body, but even largely mental work can cause stress from problems like long hours, excessive demands, or a hostile workplace.

Particularly intense forms of manual labor often lead workers to develop

throughout the workday may also suffer from long-term health issues due to a lack of physical activity.

Learning the necessary skills for work is often a complex process in its own right, requiring intentional training. In traditional societies, know-how for different tasks can be passed to each new generation through oral tradition and working under adult guidance. For work that is more specialized and technically complex, however, a more formal system of education is usually necessary. A complete curriculum ensures that a worker in training has some exposure to all major aspects of their specialty, in both theory and practice.

Tool use has been a central aspect of human evolution and is also an essential feature of work. Even in technologically advanced societies, many workers' toolsets still include a number of smaller hand-tools, designed to be held and operated by a single person, often without supplementary power. This is especially true when tasks can be handled by one or a few workers, do not require significant physical power, and are somewhat self-paced, like in many services or handicraft manufacturing.

For other tasks needing large amounts of power, such as in the

for harnessing supplementary power sources, to today's complex, regulated systems that automate many steps within a work process.

In the 20th century, the development of

continues into the 21st century.

Beyond tools and machines used to actively perform tasks, workers benefit when other passive elements of their work and environment are

.

In society

Human-hours

worked per week in the US (2006–2023)

Organizations

Even if workers are personally ready to perform their jobs, coordination is required for any effort outside of individual

becomes more critical.

Economic organizations often reflect social thought common to their time and place, such as ideas about

]

In industrialized economies,

Institutions

The need for planning and coordination extends beyond individual organizations to society as a whole too. Every successful work project requires effective resource allocation to provide necessities, materials, and investment (such as equipment and facilities). In smaller, traditional societies, these aspects can be mostly regulated through custom, though as societies grow, more extensive methods become necessary.

These complex institutions, however, still have roots in common human activities. Even the free markets of modern capitalist societies rely fundamentally on trade, while command economies, such as in many communist states during the 20th century, rely on a highly bureaucratic and hierarchical form of redistribution.^{[citation needed]}

Other institutions can affect workers even more directly by delimiting practical day-to-day life or basic legal rights. For example, a

, even requiring permission to physically travel outside the land-holding. How institutions play out in individual workers' lives can be complex too; in most societies where wage-labor predominates, workers possess equal rights by law and mobility in theory. Without social support or other resources, however, the necessity of earning a livelihood may force a worker to cede some rights and freedoms in fact.

Societies and

that by his work, man shares in the image of his creator.

Christian theologians see the fall of man as profoundly affecting human work. In Genesis 3:17, God said to Adam, "cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life".^[14] Leland Ryken said that, because of the fall, "many of the tasks we perform in a fallen world are inherently distasteful and wearisome."^[15] Christian theologians interpret that through the fall, work has become toil, but John Paul II says work is good for man in spite of this toil, and that "perhaps, in a sense, because of it", because work is something that corresponds to man's dignity and through it, he achieves fulfilment as a human being.^[16] Drawing on Aristotle, Ryken suggests that the moral ideal is the golden mean between the two extremes of being lazy and a workaholic.^[17] Some Christian theologians also draw on the doctrine of redemption to discuss the concept of work. Oliver O'Donovan said that although work is a gift of creation, it is "ennobled into mutual service in the fellowship of Christ."^[18] Pope Francis is critical of the hope that technological progress might diminish the need for work: "the goal should not be that technological progress increasingly replace human work, for this would be detrimental to humanity",^[19] and McKinsey suggests work will change, but not end, as a result of automation and the adoption of artificial intelligence.^[20]

For some, work may hold a spiritual value in addition to secular notions. Especially in some

Current issues

The contemporary

Another difficulty, which has emerged in most societies as a result of

]

One more issue, which may not directly interfere with the functioning of an economy but can have significant indirect effects, is when governments fail to account for work occurring out-of-view from the public sphere. This may be important, uncompensated work occurring every day in private life; or it may be

Due to various reasons such as the

According to the World Bank Globally rate of child labour have decreased from 25% to 10% between 60s to the early years of the 21st century. Nevertheless, giving the population of the world also increased the total number of child labourers remains high, with UNICEF and ILO acknowledging an estimated 168 million children aged 5–17 worldwide were involved in some sort of child labour in 2013.^{[26][27][28][29]}

Some scholars like Jean-Marie Baland and James A. Robinson suggests any labour by children aged 18 years or less is wrong since this encourages illiteracy, inhumane work and lower investment in human capital. In other words, there are moral and economic reasons that justify a blanket ban on labour from children aged 18 years or less, everywhere in the world.^[30][31][32] On the other hand, some scholars like Christiaan Grootaert and Kameel Ahmady believe that child labour is the symptom of poverty. If laws ban most lawful work that enables the poor to survive, the informal economy, illicit operations and underground businesses will thrive.^{[33][34][35][36]}