The concept alienation comes from the Latin alienatio, which means to become another. In other words, a person is alienated when it becomes different than it is in reality . It should be noted that alienation and inattention are terms used interchangeably. Anyway, if we apply this idea to the professional environment, we will face alienated work.
The idea of alienated labor is a fundamental aspect of Marxism
According to Marx, the division of labor is the origin of three social realities:
1) there is an unequal distribution of work and products created;
2) private property appears;
3) various social classes arise.
The different social classes generate the appearance of class consciousness in each social group (the worker has a work conscience and the capitalist has a bourgeois conscience). This means that some exercise command and others obey. This situation inevitably leads to a class struggle. Alienated Work
In capitalist society there are two classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
Each of these classes has a specific position in relation to the system of production . In other words, the worker sells himself to the bourgeois in exchange for a wage and the bourgeois benefits from the employee’s work. The fact that the proletariat does not own what it does at work causes a profound mismatch as a human being and this mismatch is a form of alienation. Thus, alienated work generates misery and unhappiness because the worker feels alienated from his own activity and because he does not work to satisfy his own needs, but so that a capitalist system pays him a decent wage.
On the other hand, work carried out under capitalism limits individual freedom and happiness. Furthermore, capitalist production systems are an obstacle to cooperation between workers, who are forced to compete with each other in a climate of hostility. In short, for Marx alienated work is a form of dehumanization of man and society as a whole. Alienated Work
Marx’s critique of the capitalist system is based on the concept of alienated labor
In the capitalist system the worker does not own the means of production. Their energy and time belong to another: to the bourgeois capitalist. Thus, for human beings to stop living alienated, it is necessary to break the chains that oppress them and end the capitalist system through a revolutionary process.
According to Marx, in the communist model there are no social classes or class struggle, therefore, it is possible to overcome the state of alienation. Alienated Work
