The ‘work ethic’ is commonly used to describe attitudes towards labour found in modern industrial society. The phrase refers to a mentality which regards work in a positive light and which perceives it as beneficial, rewarding and improving. The normal expectation is that work will occupy a high proportion of our time, and that excessive idleness is morally wrong. Following from these assumptions, work is conducted within a framework of rules and norms. Workers are expected to commit themselves to their tasks diligently and effectively, and to accept discipline and supervision. In return, employees can expect to be fairly rewarded by receiving a just wage and other benefits. Leisure is precisely defined as an alternative to work, but is not mere idleness. It should be organized and even be purposeful and constructive. Work has a place in the life cycle. Young people are educated in preparation for a period of production, which is followed by retirement.

The modern work ethic plays a crucial role in structuring social relationships. This applies not only to ‘labour relations’ between employers and employees, but also to households and neighbourhoods consisting of workers and non-workers who have their attitudes to one another formed partly from the work ethic. For example, the work ethic will influence ideas about social security and the entitlement of the poor, giving rise to the belief that charity can undermine or reinforce the motive to earn. Of course the whole issue is problematic today, and the work ethic is either rejected, or understood in special ways, by different sections of society. In general, employers have a greater enthusiasm for the work ethic than low-paid manual workers, and those who are unemployed or partially employed may reject the whole concept.

When was the work ethic formed? A strong body of opinion holds that it emerged in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ideas about the wasteful use of leisure, and attempts to control or abolish sports and pastimes, emerge with the seventeenth-century puritans, and reached their culmination in the Industrial Revolution. Concern for timekeeping, disciplined work routines and regular employment are linked with the growth of factories and large-scale employment in modern times.