Why do you work?

I mean beyond the standard reasons of (broadly) money, purpose and belonging. 

What else does work provide for you?

I ask because these high-level and widely accepted reasons for working can mask the very many other reasons why people work. Or – for those of us at or approaching a notional retirement age – why we ‘still’ work.

Some of these reasons (see below) were captured in a recent HBR article*. The gist of the article is that, in order to retain and engage employees, employers need to understand and respond to the many and differentiated things that people look to work to deliver. They should consider employees as discriminating purchasers and work as a product to sell them. 

I would say that the same goes for us consumers of work. If we’re thinking about work as a product, then it’s perhaps the most significant purchase we’ll ever make. Setting out to shop for something without really knowing what we need it to do for us – not just at the high level, but in the details, too – is unlikely to deliver a good outcome other than by chance. Without recognising these secondary factors, we won’t know to look out for them. And when they’re missing, we won’t understand why we feel dissatisfied.

What I love about the HBR list, generated from the authors’ research interviews, is that it exposes some reasons why we work which we might not previously have recognised or perhaps admitted to ourselves. They aren’t always the most prominent things, yet they’re obvious when we spot them. They aren’t always the most shout-about-able things, but they quietly matter to us.

Work can offer:

• Interesting puzzles to solve

• Tools and materials to build with

• Messes to tidy

• A stage to perform on and an adoring audience

• Broken things to repair

• Worthy opponents against whom to compete

• Teams to amplify a contribution

• A platform from which to make the world a better place

• The opportunity to leave a legacy

We may go to work in order to:

• Escape monotonous or challenging home lives

• Spend time with friends

• Provide structure to our days

• Seek refuge from personal challenges

• Repay a debt to those who helped us get where we are

• See those around us shine

• Demonstrate to others that we’re living up to our potential

Do any of these ring true? Would you add anything to the list? What might be the missing ingredient that work could deliver for you? 

For those of us who find ourselves asked why we are ‘still’ working, it’s worth knowing the answer. Not to satisfy the presumptuous enquirer, but to be clear in our own minds and to ensure that what we’re doing delivers what we need right now. 

And if it does, that’s a good enough reason in itself to be ‘still’ working.

* Eric Anicich and Dart Lindsley, ‘Reimagining Work as a Product’, in Harvard Business Review magazine, Nov-Dec 2024 issue