The Company Man Ellen Goodman Analysis

Americans are considered one of the hardest working group of people in today’s world. Work is important as we all want to ensure our needs are satisfied. However, society today labors harder than before and would even seek to eliminate relaxation and recreation time. Is our life mainly based around working? Is it possible to even work ourselves to death? In Ellen Goodman’s “The Company Man” and Andrew Curry’s “Why we work” the attitudes Americans have towards work is highlighted.
Work can consume us so much we sometimes die as a result of working extremely hard. Goodman, Ellen “The Company Man” elaborated about how Phil was a workhorse and laborer up until the day he died. Phil would go beyond his call of duty and came into work on days it was not expected of him. Ellen Goodman page 507 stated” He worked six days a week, five of them until eight or nine at night, during a time when his own company had
The current economic conditions has forced people to toil even outside the normal hours of work to chase the American dream. Andrew Curry page 261 stated “Today, work dominates Americans’ lives as never before, as workers pile on hours at a rate not seen since the Industrial Revolution. Persons who are not satisfied with their jobs continue to work just because they have no choice. Similarly, Americans have chosen “a path of consumption over leisure.” Curry, Andrew stated” Instead of working less, our hours have stayed steady or risen and today many more woman work so that families can afford the trappings of suburbia.” It is outlined that society is moving from the traditional roles where men go out to work and women stay home. Reason being economic conditions have forced women to join the workforce to maintain the household eliminating the time for leisure. Thus, Americans saw work as a requirement for survival rather than how it was before in the Industrial