The glory of work – 1

Work means many things to many people. For many it is a drudgery they have to endure if they must stay alive. To others, work makes them pulsate with life and excitement. Such people seem like they are on steroids when they are at work. What is the difference? Perspective! It’s in whether we see what we do as just a job or as work. A job is what most people do to keep body and soul together and put food on the table. It could be a profession or just a regular administrative job with duties that don’t necessarily hold any particular attraction to the doer but only serves as a means of sustenance. The satisfaction that most people feel on a job is very superficial and is tied to the pecuniary consideration of monetary reward. When the pay is good, they are happy. When the scale tilts on the side of a drop in income, or an irregularity in the flow, they are disillusioned and frustrated. Such perspective to work is what the word ‘occupation’ describes. It is simply what a person occupies himself with, usually tentatively, as long as he can hold down the position for a salary or regular, albeit regulated income.

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True work however is about what a man would do even if for free. It may be done on the platform of a job or a professional pursuit, but it gives the doer a sense of relevance and contribution to the human enterprise. At the end of each day, he goes to bed happy that he has been able to make a difference via a platform. This is the actual meaning of the word ‘vocation’. It is derived from the Latin word ‘vocare’ which means ‘to call’ or a ‘calling’. When a man has found his vocation, if money follows it, fine. If not, the satisfaction from doing what one feels that he was born to do is enough compensation. It just so happens that when a man has truly found his real work, resources will flow towards him from sources that significantly benefit from his work. For such people, material reward is a consequence or reward for their work, not a reason for it. A job may be fueled by ambition or a compelling need, but true work is fueled by a compelling vision.

Before we push the frontiers further on this, perhaps it would be instructive to examine the reasons why most people work. Primarily, many people work, as earlier indicated, just to earn enough to make a living. For as long as they get enough from a job or professional practice, there is no further motivation for work. Complementary to this is the desire to have enough to pay various bills like school fees, rent, utilities, car maintenance, etc.

For some, work is a means of redeeming an obligation. In certain cultures, when someone owes a debt and he finds it difficult to pay, he is obliged to go and work for the creditor on certain terms that amortize his salary to defray the debt over a period of time. Definitely, it is not possible to enjoy working under such circumstances, considering the fact that such a person has no control over how his income is deployed.

Others consider their work as a means of ‘killing’ boredom or avoiding the social stigma and ridicule that come with being jobless.  For people in this category, the fact that they are able to get out of the house in the morning to go to an office is okay even if the pay is not exactly very good. However, they work as if they are doing the employer a favour and so could leave any moment.

In a seminar I hosted recently, I asked participants to introduce themselves and, for networking purposes, tell the gathering what they were doing. When it was the turn of a particular young man to speak, after mentioning his name, he said he was ‘managing’ on a job until he would raise enough money to start a small business of his own. This is the attitude of many employees. Before he finished speaking, I interrupted him and told him point-blank why it would be difficult for him to have his own business. It would not be because of the inability to raise enough money. It would be because of a wrong attitude. ‘Managing’ on a job means a lack of two things, commitment and a sense of stakeholdership. I let him see that if he could not work in an establishment as if it belonged to him, he would not be able to properly manage his!

There is another category of people for whom work is a status issue. Their self-esteem is only enhanced by the type of work they do and the social status that it affords them. Such people would move from one job to another even with just a slight increase in salary.

I have met people for whom their job is simply to prove a point. Perhaps they live or grew up in an environment where they were despised or made to feel inadequate or inferior. I can relate with this. My first job after graduating from the university was as a teacher in a secondary school. I have always loved imparting knowledge. But I sought another job when the lady I was engaged to at that time broke up with me for the simple reason that her parents told her that getting married to a teacher whose parents were not people of ‘significant’ means was like sentencing herself to a lifetime of poverty. When she finished speaking, I was distraught but I looked at her straight in the face and said, “How dare your parents talk like they are God? If you see me in the next one year without a better job, don’t even answer me if I greet you!”. Two months later, I secured a better job. Point proven! Of course I didn’t know then what I know now.

Any man who is married to a nagging wife who knows how to rub in his inadequacies will know the value of a good job. This is what actually motivates some people. When a demanding wife constantly refers a man to what his contemporaries have achieved or are achieving and how short he falls on the achievement and dignity index, he seeks to change the narrative, first to have the respite of something that takes him out of the house for an extended period of time daily to avoid a tantrum-throwing spouse and second, to have a sense of satisfaction that he could actually do something with his life.

Justifiable as these reasons may be, none of them can give the sense of satisfaction that should come with doing work as a vocation. In many instances, the drudgery, boredom and frustration on the job can make one detached and sometimes loathe waking up in the morning just to repeat the routine of having to go to work!… continued.

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

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