I have to think that this is one of those hard areas to get a consistent measure of a comment thing. For example, is the 3 hour lunch meeting with a client really the same as the 3 houts a factory worker put in or the three hours recorded by a software engineer records for a specific project worked on?
I suppose we can say in each cases there is some level of “standing around” rather than real work. But I do suspect that the types of work don’t as one climbs the income ladder you start seeing more of the gray areas because the output of the effort becomes less directly measurable.
I also think that in the OP one of the factors in work was the unpleasant nature of the effort. While hardly universally true I have to speculate that at the higher income levels a larger percentage of people are doing things they find both interesting and enjoyable than hold at lower levels.
But clearly those hypothesis would likewise by challenging to evaluate as well.
at the higher income levels a larger percentage of people are doing things they find both interesting and enjoyable than hold at lower levels
How much autonomy someone has at work already makes a huge difference, even if it is a similar kind of work. I write computer programs both at work and in my free time, and the experience is incomparable, even if the programming language is the same, and the things I do at home are often more complicated.
If someone offered to pay me as much as is my current salary (or even 30% less), under the condition that I will keep working, but on projects of my own choice and at my own pace, plus I have to work 1 more hour every day, I would be quite happy to accept the deal.
I have to think that this is one of those hard areas to get a consistent measure of a comment thing. For example, is the 3 hour lunch meeting with a client really the same as the 3 houts a factory worker put in or the three hours recorded by a software engineer records for a specific project worked on?
I suppose we can say in each cases there is some level of “standing around” rather than real work. But I do suspect that the types of work don’t as one climbs the income ladder you start seeing more of the gray areas because the output of the effort becomes less directly measurable.
I also think that in the OP one of the factors in work was the unpleasant nature of the effort. While hardly universally true I have to speculate that at the higher income levels a larger percentage of people are doing things they find both interesting and enjoyable than hold at lower levels.
But clearly those hypothesis would likewise by challenging to evaluate as well.
How much autonomy someone has at work already makes a huge difference, even if it is a similar kind of work. I write computer programs both at work and in my free time, and the experience is incomparable, even if the programming language is the same, and the things I do at home are often more complicated.
If someone offered to pay me as much as is my current salary (or even 30% less), under the condition that I will keep working, but on projects of my own choice and at my own pace, plus I have to work 1 more hour every day, I would be quite happy to accept the deal.