Darwinism in the Workplace

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Surviving the Workplace: Social Darwinism is the theory that society is subject to the laws of natural selection. Natural selection can be explained in a few simple words: “survival of the fittest.” These laws can be applied to the workplace. People are forced to deal with the changing environments of their jobs, and if a person is not able to adapt then they will be in the end terminated, and in some sense left to die because if one does not work he or she is ultimately useless. One can apply Social Darwinism to the literary works “Bartleby the Scrivener,” by Herman Melville and Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. For both works the protagonists, and some minor characters have to try and abide by the laws of natural selection by adapting to the changes in their work environment. In society the demand for a job is always high. That’s why obtaining a job has become very competitive, and everything becomes even more competitive once settled into a workplace. Competition in the workplace is normal. A worker almost always wants to obtain job security, so he/she will try to do a good job even if that means trying to do better than someone else. On the other hand, if there is an indolent worker that does not care about his job it will be easy for another worker of the same stature to seem more efficient to said worker. The diligent worker knew what to do in his job environment regardless of any changes. As a result the lazy worker would be terminated from his job and will then have to try and find a new job in order to survive. Workers who cannot keep up with their jobs will be forced to do something about it or will be left behind with nothing just like Bartelby. Bartleby, the protagonist of “Bartleby the Scrivener,” was a very diligent worker. Bartleby was the worker that everyone wanted to have. He always got his work done and never caused any problems. His

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