Work and Leisure

24 A. J. Veal(O’Malley 1992: 347) – and religious observances could involve substantialcalls on an individual’s time. Further, among Puritans (as discussed) a devotionto hard work and prohibition of idleness predated widespread use ofclocks and the factory system.But changes in work culture did not happen overnight. The continuingprocess of urbanisation, industrialisation and migration meant that the clashof traditional and new industrial cultures persisted for some time. ThusHerbert Gutman (1977), in analysing the process of industrialisation in theUnited States, based on local and immigrant labour from rural backgrounds,noted that:Common work habits rooted in diverse pre-modern cultures (different inmany ways but nevertheless all ill fitted to the regular routines demandedby machine-centered factory processes) existed among distinctive firstgenerationfactory workers all through American history . . . workersnew to factory production brought strange and seemingly useless workhabits to the factory gate. The irregular and undisciplined work patternsof factory hands before 1843 frustrated cost-conscious manufacturersand caused frequent complaint among them.(Gutman 1977: 19)Increasing material rewardsEconomic factors played a direct part in changing the lifestyles of themasses. While industrialisation brought with it widespread poverty andexploitation, this was not true for all, and urban poverty was often seen aspreferable to the rural alternative. Wages for skilled workers in particularwere historically high. One feature of the non-industrial work culturewhich industrialists found frustrating was the tendency for employees towork until they had earned a certain amount of money, sufficient for theirneeds, and then to stop, perhaps disappearing from the workplace forextended periods – a phenomenon seen today in situations where modernindustry is superimposed on non-industrial society, such as South Africangold mines. However, higher wages also meant that at least some workingpeople could, through hard work and long hours, improve their materialconditions. Further, the very products of industry resulted in more andmore goods being produced that were within reach of working people.Capitalism began to offer a form of prosperity for the masses. The idea ofwealth from hard work, particularly in the New World, transformed thehopes and aspirations of many ordinary people. It was no longer necessaryto persuade the masses that work was a moral duty or for the glory ofGod, with its rewards in the hereafter; work now had its own, increasing,rewards here on earth.