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Quote by H.L. Mencken

“Looking back over a life of hard work… my only regret is that I didn’t work even harder.”

Quote by H.L. Mencken

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H.L. Mencken

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“The distribution of tasks amongst the various employees follows a simple rule, which is that the duty of the members of each category is to do as much work as they possibly can, so that only a small part of that work need be passed to the category above. This means the clerks are obliged to work without cease from morning to night, whereas senior clerks do so only now and then, the deputies very rarely, and the Registrar almost never.”

WorkEmploymentExploitationHierarchy
Book:All the Names
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“Furthermore, to the same degree in which the division of labour increases, is the labour simplified. The special skill of the labourer becomes worthless. He becomes transformed into a simple monotonous force of production, with neither physical nor mental elasticity. His work becomes accessible to all; therefore competitors press upon him from all sides. Moreover, it must be remembered that the more simple, the more easily learned the work is, so much the less is its cost of production, the expense of its acquisition, and so much the lower must the wages sink—for, like the price of any other commodity, they are determined by the cost of production. Therefore, in the same measure in which labour becomes more unsatisfactory, more repulsive, do competition increase and wages decrease.”

WorkEconomicsCompetitionDivision Of Labor
Book:Wage-Labour and Capital & Value, Price and Profit
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“Maybe it wasn’t that job particularly; maybe it was just working for someone else. It’s so brutal and tiring, the way it can push you down and knock the heart out of you. It’s not getting up at a certain time and arriving at a certain place at a certain time and leaving at a certain time and coming back again at a certain time — it’s knowing that you have to. What’s worse is that, through age or job-experience or academic qualification or sheer good luck, one adult is in a position to order and insult and abuse and shout at another adult who isn’t in a position to reply in kind. It makes everyone a tin god. Everyone likes having slaves to beat, as they’re beaten themselves. And working on the grind wears you out. After a week of it you’re so tired that you use the weekend just to catch up on your rest before going back to another week of it.”

WorkClass StruggleGlasgowScottish Fiction
Book:The Book of Man
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“Minden egyes szóval, ami most sikerülten a pergamenre került, növekedett bátorsága, és vele együtt ügyessége is. Valóban remekül lehetett írni a tollakkal, és a titokzatos tinta hollófeketén és engedelmesen csurgott a vakítóan fehér pergamenre. Midőn ilyen szorgosan és feszült figyelemmel dolgozott, egyre otthonosabban érezte magát a magányos szobában, és teljesen beleélte magát a foglalatosságba, amelyet – úgy remélte – majd szerencsésen elvégez, amikor az óra hármat ütött, a levéltáros behívta a szomszéd szobába, a gondosan elkészített ebédhez.”

InspirationalWorkFlowColors
Book:Az arany virágcserép / A homokember / Scuderi kisasszony
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