To think “work ethic” is just capitalism’s favourite personality trait?

I can understand this. You are seen as a failure if you don't earn a certain amount at a certain age. And if you don't earn that much, then it is seen as normal to work way over 40 hours a week. Someone on here said that if you can only earn NMW then you should be prepared to work 100 hour weeks and just fucking not ever complain about it. Worked out you would have about 30 hours a week for "recreation", when it was actually waking up, getting to sleep, eating, self care, commuting etc.

"Work life balance" is bollocks. You spend a third of your day, usually your most awake and productive hours, at work. Get home knackered. Spend the weekend recovering, just to do it all again.

You’re totally right and, unfortunately, that’s working life in this country now for most people. Overworked and underpaid, often doing the work of several people and being treated like shite. Even the ‘good’ jobs that people once aspired to (doctor, teacher, etc.) are now awful.

In my last job, we were being asked to do more and more, and that breeds resentment - not just for your managers but for your co-workers too. Eventually, the whole (initially fantastic) team fell apart.

The whole point is that no one should feel stressed and underpaid at work. Those are not reasons to work even harder for less money and more stress.

There is some ground between taking a sick day just
becuase it’s your birthday or you feel a bit sad and never taking a day off even when ill

the world is multi coloured not monochromatic simplicity

Thing is, most often you’re not ‘sticking it to the man’! You’re ’sticking it’ to your work colleagues, who are likely as stressed and underpaid as you are and who may be forced to take on your workload.

In pretty short order we've gone from,

"We act like “hard-working” is a moral virtue. But isn’t it really just capitalism’s way of getting people to feel proud about exhausting themselves for someone else’s profit?"

to

"My post wasn’t about knocking people at all. It’s more a reflection on how the idea of work ethic is sometimes weaponised, especially in traditional employment, to justify burnout or guilt people into overextending themselves."

Have you answered your own question OP?

p.s. Work ethic isn't a personality trait.

I would modify this to:
'Communism relies on people thinking that working hard enough in accordance with your ability is the right thing to do for the collective good, and that in return others will work hard enough and benefit you.'

I think OP has a point about capitalism and work ethic.

I agree op.
It always amuses me when people ask if I like my job. In theory it could be great. That’s the theory. If I came into a lot if money I would either ask to go part time, no more that 3 days. Or leave completely.

Yes and no. It’s about satisfaction of doing a good job for me. But yes in that the push for it is often driven by corporate greed. Forcing women and men to prioritise work over family. So i put lots of time and hard work for things for me and my family too, to balance things out.

No I don’t.

It’s part of my identity and self-image to do the best job I can. I’ve had the misfortune to work alongside people with OP’s point of view, though, and they’re a PITA for everyone else.

Nothing to do with capitalism for me.

Ah - so only one person off at a time. Would we all have to coordinate our duvet days off first, so we can draught in more staff in advance?

If there was no one to see me because one person had a duvet day, then that is because the department is not staffed properly. Even more reason why employees would be tired if there's a department of eight people trying to do the work of 16.

You would care if you went to hospital worried about sepsis and there was no one to see you because they thought they'd have a duvet day because they are fucking tired.

I literally couldn't care less if I tried.

Perhaps if employers paid decent wages that people can actually live off and created working cultures that were supportive and encouraged people to thrive rather than wring them out until they're husks, then their employees would be less inclined to want duvet days.

People are fucking tired. I wouldn't begrudge a duvet day to anyone. Especially not on their birthday.

Yes to all of this.

Indeed. But do you feel the same about employees having a duvet day on their birthday?

Here here

You see it on here all the time. An OP will post asking if they should ring in sick to look after their poorly child, or if it would be bad to pull a sickie to have a duvet day on their birthday, and all the good little obedient worker drones will pile on saying that it's fraud and that she'll be sacked and lazy this and entitled that, blah, blah, blah.

All the women on here proud of the fact that they've never had a sick day in their working life and would miss their own mother's funeral if their employer demanded it. There was a thread yesterday posted by someone with a potentially life threatening condition and she was umming and ahhing about seeking medical advice because she had a training course to do.

I say fuck that. Take the sickie. Stick it to the man at every opportunity. No way would I risk sepsis for an employer who would throw me under the redundancy bus without a backwards glance if they thought it was necessary to save their own skin.

This is true. True communism relies on people thinking that working hard in accordance with your ability is the right thing to do for the collective good, and that in return others will work hard and benefit you.

I do think there's a moral component, and it has nothing to do with capitalism. It would still be true if we lived in a socialist or communist utopia (🙄). Not 'working hard' usually means someone else has to pick up the slack. Assuming you have the capacity to 'work hark', it's immoral to be lazy and put in a pathetic level of effort, knowing that someone else has to work harder to make up the difference.

It's on you to make people want to respond, not just pose a 'discuss' statement. Contribute something yourself about what's made you think this? Why should we do all the work.. 😉

I'm a socialist with a strong work ethic. I don't see the problem with working hard at your job and taking a pride in what you do, if its useful and does at least some good (if it doesn't, change it!) The problem comes when you're exploited in the process, which unfortunately tends to be the majority of jobs, at least in the lower socio economic brackets. What we should be striving for imo is not less of a work ethic, but greater rewards for workers.

Do you not think those who work for themselves often have a good work ethic?