The Dehumanizing of Workers
Hello Aesthetics Fans!
I’m passionate about the practical ways that aesthetics helps our well-being and complements our other goals. One area where we rarely invoke aesthetics is our work culture. You’re there to work, not to enjoy art, beauty, or other aesthetic features. The truth is that if you didn’t need to work, you probably wouldn’t report to your job. So, there is an obvious sense in which you are certainly there to work. But that can’t be the whole story.
Friendship and sociability, for instance, are highly important to us as people. Sometimes while at our jobs we engage in conversations with others that are simply enjoyable. In other words, those interactions have nothing directly to do with our job. But they make our jobs more enjoyable as we need to be social. Imagine if somehow a company was able to enforce a no-talking policy, unless it was directly about work? This would not be a good or healthy work environment, and I suspect morale and efficiency would decline.
In his book If Aristotle Ran General Motors, philosopher Tom Morris explains that if we want to engage the whole person at work, then we need to allow for more than facts, tasks, and intellectual processes. People need friendships, and they also need aesthetic experiences.
The feeling of being dehumanized at work is pervasive enough to warrant a term called organizational dehumanization. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology defines it “as the experience of an employee who feels objectified by his or her organization, denied personal subjectivity, and made to feel like a tool or instrument for the organization’s ends.” The dehumanizing of workers was forewarned and illustrated by Charlie Chaplin in his film Modern Times (1936). See the famous image below where Chaplin’s character literally becomes a cog in the machine.
How do we overcome this dehumanization? There surely is not just one thing that needs to change. We might talk about empathetic bosses. We could mention the need for more autonomy. But one thing that is often not mentioned is the need for aesthetic experience.
When asked to recall an aesthetic experience, most people jump immediately to an acute experience of art or nature. While these are good examples, they are not usually part of our daily lives; they are special experiences. Philosopher John Dewey argues that every practical activity or experience has an aesthetic quality. We don’t always pay attention to that quality because other aspects dominate that experience. When the aesthetic quality dominates an experience, that’s when we call it an “aesthetic experience.” But the aesthetic aspect is present in all experiences.
Positive aesthetic features are necessary for human flourishing. And since we spend so much time at our jobs, they are necessary for our well-being at work too. One way to realize the importance of positive aesthetic features is to imagine your work space without them. Imagine if your boss tells you that you’re moving to a new office in the basement. Upon arrival, it looks eerily similar to a solitary confinement cell, like you recently saw while watching The Shawshank Redemption. This new office is a windowless basement room with a concrete floor and gray, dull walls. The lighting is unnatural and inconsistently applied. Would you really be able to work in this space and be happy and productive?
Hopefully, no one’s office is that bad, though I know people who have worked in windowless basement offices. But people need positive aesthetic spaces because these spaces impact our well-being. And science has begun to confirm what philosophers have long proclaimed, that people need beauty. We may not always agree on which things are beautiful or their degree of beauty. But we all need beauty; it is a human value. Even in a place that needs to be very functional, like a vaccination center, people are affected positively by good aesthetic features. So, positive aesthetics is not reserved for only some kinds of work but not others.
We all experience stress, frustration, and other negative emotions at our jobs from time to time. Positive aesthetic features and experiences can mitigate or counterbalance the effects of these negative emotions, at least to some degree. Different research studies have shown that better aesthetics helps spaces feel more welcoming; improve mental health; boost productivity; and have a high return on investment. These practical consequences show why it is highly important to consider the aesthetics of a working environment. It helps to combat the feelings of dehumanization when the environment in which someone works is designed for human well-being, rather than designed for a particular function alone.
In the absence of a workplace that has positive aesthetics, it’s too simple to tell someone to just find another job. They be may be trying without much luck. If your work doesn’t offer a positive aesthetic environment, then you still have options to help counteract those effects. First, you could make small changes, if possible. Bring in a plant or some art. Add a lamp for better lighting. Anything that adds even a small amount of positive aesthetics is beneficial. These changes are personal, so it’s important to add what you want to any area over which you have some control. And second, if adding anything to your work space isn’t possible, then be sure to take an active part in your own aesthetic experiences outside of work. Some examples are spending time outside in nature or going to an art museum. Think about spaces at your house that could have aesthetic features that are more pleasing to you. Aesthetics, even in small doses, can help us tap into our humanity.
The need for artistic and aesthetic experiences is so important that there’s research suggesting that prescribing these experiences can be valuable for patients. Similar to eating healthy and exercising can be preemptive for physical health, making a concerted effort to seek out positive aesthetic experiences can be preemptively beneficial for our mental health.
To invite me to write for or speak to your group or organization, please email me at michaelrspicher@gmail.com
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