Introduction

Work has a major impact on our life. It not only takes up a large part of our wakeful hours, but the literature suggests that it also has a major role in shaping our emotional and physical wellbeing. Since jobs are not all alike, their impact on different individuals varies a great deal. It is a daily grind for the many who find themselves employed in tedious jobs that make limited use of their potential as resourceful, thinking human beings, capable of problem solving and initiative-taking. On the other hand, there is a significant number of other workers for whom work is a source of personal fulfilment and pride. Still, even when the tasks are very tedious, gainful employment can increase one's sense of self-reliance and social belonging. Barry Schwartz's 2015 book, Why We Work, opens our eyes to the deeply rewarding aspects of even the lowliest of jobs, provided they allow scope for genuine human interaction. Even Studs Terkel, who documented the tedious nature of many jobs, noted that while the attainment of the means to get the things that money can buy is essential, it is clearly not the only function of paid work. As he observed, workers ‘have a meaning to their work well over and beyond the reward of the paycheque’ (Terkel, 1974: xi). But, although gainful employment per se makes a positive contribution to one's overall mental wellbeing, this positive potential contribution can be partially or wholly undone in workplaces that generate high levels of stress.

The non-monetary value of paid work is also evident in the plight of the unemployed. Social psychology, sociology and cultural studies scholarship, along with medical studies of mental health, provide evidence of the negative consequences of unemployment on people's emotional and physical health. The literature indicates that this applies equally to all people, regardless of wage levels and across diverse demographics. In addition to the academic research carried out by sociologists, psychologists and industrial relations academics, we also have first-person accounts gathered by writers who had interviewed the unemployed.

Those interviews show that the impact of joblessness is often deeply emotional, going beyond the toll inflicted by material deprivation. This has been seen even in countries where unemployment benefits are set at generous levels, as in Scandinavia.