MOOCS Saúde Mental Relacionada ao Trabalho - 05 - O que é o trabalho Parte 1

Hello, let’s start video class #5 now. I'm Janice, a teacher, and psychologist, and I'm going to accompany you here to think a little about work within the dimension of human relations. This module aims to broaden our knowledge about people's relationships with and at work; understand work and its socio-historical dynamics; and point out some of the transformations in the world of work.

I invite everyone to think with me “What is work? ” When we talk about work, we often equate it to having a job, with making money, but work is a much broader concept. It is a human activity.

I invite you to define it together with me: Is it a paid activity? Is it an activity that identifies us socially? Is it a form of personal realization, or is it mobilized by a work organization to which workers need to adapt to?

Is it also a social dynamic that causes suffering? So, what is work? Work is all of that.

It is a paid activity; it is a way of being employed; it is a socially established activity that identifies us; It is directed towards the tasks that a work organization can impose on the worker, and there is a dynamic of profound transformation, that is, it is not simple to define work. So, explaining work is not an easy task, just as working is not an easy thing. Think with me, in order to work, we have to mobilize a series of things; our routine, our schedule; how we are going to be at work, and we need to consider that we are working.

“Janice, what if I don't consider myself employed, but I carry out an activity that gives me a financial return or active social value that I consider a job? ” Let’s think about it: there are many ways of working that are not just through being formally hired. Work contracts, in general, are a way to agree on what a worker proposes to do, and the value of their labor, with what the hiring parties propose and impose on that worker.

I invite you to think that work is much more than a contract, it is much more than a justification for having a job. In fact, work is the dedication and the way of relating to the activities carried out, and the people who are part of this work activity. In this sense, how are we with and at work?

Reviewing what we discussed in the first module, the dynamics of health and illness are directly related to the ways in which we understand what work is and how dedicated we are to it, and how much of our mental health has to do with the activity being developed. Some will say, influenced by Marx, that work is an activity of a previously planned transformation of nature mediated by human relationships. It is interesting to point out that the result of this work, which would be a previously planned transformation of nature, also speaks of a product with use value.

What does this mean? A product that aims to satisfy human dimensions and needs. Others, more attentive to the newer forms of work and pay in human activity, have been emphasizing a concept of work that involves not only the production of goods but also the care for others.

If we stop to think about this care for others, referring to work, we also produce relationships, pleasure, and suffering. And it is this dimension that this course and this module propose to discuss. So, what are we calling the working class?

What human activities and through which parameters will these activities be considered work activities? This is why I’d like to add that every human activity produces something. We cook, we read, we study, and these are also forms of production.

The production of knowledge and the production of life experience. Work also produces many things. However, it carries the perspective of delivering a product to society, and this is why work identifies us socially.

Well, if we have to think about work, and we are taking a course to think about workers' mental health, why does this matter to us? Because it is important to determine some elements that make up these work relationships for life as a whole. This is the theme of our next class.