Why Do We Work?

On average Americans work 52.2 hours a week, 261 days a year resulting in 2,088 hours a year.  Wow.  That’s a whole lot of time spent working.  So this brings me to my question…..

Why do we work?

In What People Want From Work Susan M. Heathfield states, “Whatever your personal reasons for working, the bottom line, however, is that almost everyone works for money. Whatever you call it: compensation, salary, bonuses, benefits or remuneration, money pays the bills.”

In Why Do We Work? One Career Changer’s Answer Lisa Cullen gives the definitive answer….PASSION.  She goes on to give an example of a Kinko’s executive who gave up the big career to pursue work that aligned with her passion of walking.

In Why do we work? Brian Dumaine states, “When Fortune asked scores of managers, from CEOs to warehouse supervisors, why they worked, the three most common reasons cited besides paying the mortgage were to make the world a better place, to help themselves and others on their team grow spiritually and intellectually, and lastly, to perfect their technical skills.”  The article goes on to give the example of Tom of Tom’s of Maine, an environmentally focused company that makes toothpaste and other personal items, who set out to make his work more fulfilling and better the world.  The article also explains how an insurance CEO found his work to be a worthy profession because “life is unfair, bad things happen to good people, and insurance is a way to help those good people for whom fate dealt a bum hand. For him, something as seemingly mundane as insurance took on great meaning.”

In The Future of Work:  Engaging Employees to Drive Innovation Will Marré asserts that employees want to work for reasons beyond a paycheck.  He cites research that indicates over 85 percent of workers want work that contributes to a better society and a healthier environment.  They want to work to benefit society.

All of us have our own reasons for working.  But the truth is more and more of us work for reasons besides just the money.  Let’s face it.  We work 2,088 hours a year.  Why not spend that time doing something that makes the world a better place and brings us something more than money?