What motivates us to work?

[robbo203]

Interesting YouTube vid on what motivates workers to work. Seems it depends partly on the type of work. Marx´s polytechnic worker – what he argued capitalism was increasingly creating – would not need money as an incentive to work at all, according to this argument.

It is interesting that capitalism should want to (cynically) exploit the “intrinsic motivation” that people have to work by linking it to the profit motive, as the clip demonstrates

[paula.mcewan]

I found this a difficult video to watch to the end, due to the scribbling pencil which got on my nerves. Was he saying that people who work on automatic tasks (eg factory workers) work harder if they get a cash reward, but people who have to think at work (professionals?) don’t work harder if given a cash reward? If so, perhaps it’s because the ‘professionals’ already earn enough to take it easy at work whereas manual workers need to keep striving due to poor incomes.
Paula
(without moderator hat on)

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