Work-position similarity

The measure as written

The rule of THE REALITY OF UPS AND DOWNS OF LIFE:

“An individual must be satisfied at the specific position assigned to him in the stratified society, bearing dynamic equilibrium, with the net change regarded as a natural phenomenon to prevent fatigue and create a healthy competition in line with the capability level.”

Under "The stratification in the Society", the levels are placed:

A society is sustainable only with such a stratified structure in which the type/position is assigned in accordance with the capability level of an individual (ideal case). As we move outward in this societal sphere, organizational tasks gradually increase, while moving inward we witness more structural tasks/work at ground level. In nature, a dynamic equilibrium is maintained with the shifting of positions from lower to upper and upper to lower levels. In this ideal system, the number of individuals required at each level is maintained for a smooth and efficient system. ...

Under "Work-Position Similarity Theory", it states the theory and gives the measure:

In an ideal society, the individuals are assigned the same amount of work (quantitatively) (burden), irrespective of the position they bear (in terms of level).

It means the same amount of contribution, in terms of a burden on the society, by each individual. As we move from lower to upper levels, physical struggle decreases while mental/psychological struggle increases, but the net product is the same. (In practice, this can be checked by measuring, for a person at each level, the physical work through the struggle it involves and the mental work through the expertise spent per hour; once both are brought onto one common scale and added up, the total of a person at one level should come out close enough to the total of a person at any other level.)

and under "A thirsty man and a Mirage", it speaks of the relief that many seek at a higher level:

Many perceive the higher level to be more manageable, but in an ideal situation such relief does not exist (the only way to evade responsibilities is to become an extrinsic non-ideal with a negative participation to burden ratio) (as discussed earlier, this is the most destructive form of a non-ideal). Once people believe in the theory of work-position similarity, it will be easier to satisfy them at their assigned position.

This sub-section applies this check to the societies of today: for a person at each level, the physical work through the struggle it involves and the mental work through the expertise spent per hour, brought onto one common scale and added up, with the totals of the levels set side by side. The theory is witnessed in an ideal society, so what today's societies show is not a test of it.

What it measures, in plain words

Every individual is assigned "the same amount of work (quantitatively) (burden), irrespective of the position they bear". From the ground level to the top, the work changes its kind, not its amount: "physical struggle decreases while mental/psychological struggle increases, but the net product is the same". The measure asks, for each society, how the physical and the mental work are spread over its levels today, and how the weekly totals of the levels stand beside one another.

This is not a direct measure of whether a society is ideal or not; the Work-Position Similarity is witnessed in an ideal society. The results can give us a glimpse that the Work-Position Similarity is a reality.

What is measured.

· The levels. The workers of each society in the occupation groups that every society's survey of its workers uses (the international classification of the ILO), from the ground to the top: elementary occupations, at the ground level of structural work; clerical, service and sales, skilled farm, craft and machine work; technicians and associate professionals; professionals; and managers, at the top, where the "organizational tasks" are the most. The armed forces are left out, as all levels are in one group.

· The physical work of an hour. How demanding the physical and manual activities of the work are: general physical activities, handling and moving objects, controlling machines and processes, and operating vehicles and equipment, each rated for every occupation on one scale from 0 to 7.

· The mental work of an hour. How demanding the mental processes of the work are: judging, processing, checking and analysing information; making decisions and solving problems; thinking creatively; updating and using knowledge; developing objectives and strategies; and scheduling, organizing and planning work, on the same scale from 0 to 7, rated in the same questionnaire for each occupation.

· One common scale. As both are rated on the one scale, the physical and the mental level of an occupation are added up: the load of one hour of its work.

· The weekly total. The load of an hour times the hours a week that the workers of the level actually work, from each society's own survey of its workers.

· The levels side by side. Each level's weekly total against that of the society's average worker: 1.00 is the same total.

· Person against person. In the United States, where every worker's hours are recorded along with his occupation, the same total for each person: at each level, how many persons come close to the typical worker.

Read in hours of work, on one scale. The work is read in hours a week, each hour weighed by how demanding its physical and its mental activities are, on one scale for both; no money figure is used.

How to read the result.

· When the physical level falls and the mental level rises from the ground to the top, the work changes its kind as it was given.

· The "close enough" is taken as within a tenth: a level between 0.90 and 1.10 carries about the same weekly total as the average worker. The nearer the levels come to one another, the nearer the total of "a person at one level" comes to that of "a person at any other level".

· A level above 1.00 carries more than the average worker; a level below it, less.

· As the theory is witnessed in an ideal society, a gap between the levels today does not show how far a society is from being ideal, and levels that come close do not show that it is ideal.

How we measured it

Six of the seven societies are measured: Brazil, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Russia and the United States. For China, the ILO gives the hours of work by occupation group for 2014 only, and not the number of workers in each group, so its levels cannot be set side by side; this is a limit of the data.

The levels. Each society's workers in the nine major groups of the international classification of occupations (ISCO-08), as each society's own survey of its workers reports them to the ILO (ILOSTAT): the continuous national household survey (Brazil), the labour force surveys (Egypt, India, Nigeria and Russia) and the current population survey (the United States). The groups are ordered from the ground to the top by the ILO's own skill levels: elementary occupations (skill level 1); clerical support, service and sales, skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery, craft and related trades, and plant and machine operators (skill level 2), taken together as one level, each group weighed by its workers; technicians and associate professionals (skill level 3); professionals (skill level 4); and managers at the top. The armed forces, and the workers not classed by occupation, are left out.

The hours. For each group, the mean hours a week actually worked by an employed person, and the number of employed persons, from the same surveys (ILOSTAT), of the latest year: 2025 for Brazil, India, Russia and the United States; 2024 for Egypt and Nigeria.

The load of an hour. For every occupation, the O*NET® database (version 31.0, of the Employment and Training Administration of the United States Department of Labor) gives the level of 41 work activities on one scale from 0 to 7, rated in one questionnaire by the occupation's own workers or by experts in it. The physical work of an hour is the mean level of the database's four physical and manual work activities; the mental work of an hour is the mean level of its ten mental processes; an activity marked as not relevant to an occupation counts as 0. The two are added up.

From the occupations to the levels. The O*NET ratings are those of the occupations of the United States. The load of an hour of each ILO group is the mean of the occupations in it, each weighed by its workers in the United States, from the time-use survey of 2025 (BLS, American Time Use Survey). The occupations are linked through the Census Bureau's occupation list of 2018 and the crosswalks of BLS between the American classification of occupations (of 2010 and of 2018) and the ILO's; an occupation that falls into more than one ILO group is shared equally among them. The same load of an hour is used for all six societies: the hours and the number of workers at each level are each society's own, while the ratings are those of the work in the United States; this is a limit of the data.

The weekly total. For each level, the hours a week times the load of an hour, set against the same total for the society's average worker (all the levels together, each weighed by its workers).

Person against person. In the United States, the time-use survey of 2025 gives each employed person's occupation and usual hours a week at all jobs: 3,411 employed persons, each with his survey weight; the 198 who say that their hours vary are left out of the totals. Each person's weekly total is his hours times the load of an hour of his occupation. The persons are placed in levels by the O*NET job zones, the preparation that the work needs, from 2 to 5 (the O*NET 31.0 database places no occupation in zone 1). At each level, the share of persons within a tenth of the median person's total is read, along with the spread between the lower and the upper quarter.

Checks. All set before the first count:

· Physical work as bodily struggle only: general physical activities, and handling and moving objects.

· The organizational tasks added to the mental work: coordinating the work and activities of others, and guiding, directing and motivating subordinates.

· Each activity's level weighed by its importance to the occupation (the O*NET importance scale, from 1 to 5).

· In the United States, the hours of the main job only; and the hours of work on the diary day, times seven, instead of the usual hours.

· In the United States, the persons placed in five equal parts by their organizational tasks, instead of by job zones.

· In the United States, the hours of each ILO group from the time-use survey against those that the ILO gives.

Years. The ILO's hours and workers: 2025 for Brazil, India, Russia and the United States; 2024 for Egypt and Nigeria. The O*NET database: version 31.0. The time-use survey: 2025.

Limits of the data. Three things the counts cannot see; they limit the reading, not the levels:

· The ratings of an hour are those of the work in the United States; in another society, the same occupation may be more or less demanding.

· The O*NET level shows how demanding an activity is, as its workers and experts rate it; it is not the energy that the body spends.

· China gives the hours by occupation group for 2014 only, and no number of workers by group.

What the seven societies show

Six of the seven societies are measured; for China, the data give no number of workers by level.

Table 1. The load of an hour at each level, on the O*NET scale from 0 to 7

The second level joins five groups, each weighed by its workers in the society, so its values differ from one society to another; the other levels carry the same values in all six.

The kind of work changes from level to level; the load of an hour hardly does. From the ground to the top, the mental work of an hour rises at every step, from 2.65 to 4.70, and the physical work is highest in the first two levels and lowest among the professionals, with the managers a little above them. Taken apart, the physical work of the heaviest level is 2.2 to 2.4 times that of the lightest, and the mental work 1.8 times; added up, the load of an hour of the heaviest level is only 1.12 to 1.15 times that of the lightest. As "physical struggle decreases while mental/psychological struggle increases", the two together stay nearly level.

Table 2. Each level's weekly total, against the average worker of the same society (1.00 = the same total)

China is left out: its data give no number of workers by level.

The weekly totals of the levels lie close together. In every society measured, every level carries between 0.86 and 1.27 of the average worker's weekly total; in Russia, every level is within a tenth of it. The heaviest level carries 1.15 to 1.46 times the weekly total of the lightest.

Where the totals part, it is the hours. As the load of an hour hardly changes, the levels part mainly by the hours a week they work. The managers work the longest hours in five of the six, and the ground level the shortest in four; in India, the managers work 57.2 hours a week against 43.7 at the ground level.

Person against person. In the United States, the weekly totals of the job zones 2 to 5 are 0.91, 1.18, 1.01 and 1.05 of the average worker. Only 17%, 18%, 32% and 40% of the persons of each zone come within a tenth of the median person; the middle half of the persons in zone 2 spans from 0.62 to 1.16 of the median person's total, and in zone 5 from 0.91 to 1.20. Inside each level, persons differ more than the levels differ from one another.

Checks. None of the checks moves any level by more than 0.04: physical work as bodily struggle only, the organizational tasks added to the mental work, each activity weighed by its importance, the hours of the main job only, and the hours of the diary day. With the persons of the United States placed by their organizational tasks instead, the weekly total rises from 0.77 in the fifth with the fewest to 1.15 in the two fifths with the most.

So, in the societies of today, the work of the levels differs far more in its kind than in its amount. This does not show how near any society is to being an ideal one; it gives us a glimpse of the Work-Position Similarity that is witnessed in an ideal society.