Your attitude that work is work might suffice as a partial truth for some people, but we doubt most people would want to leave it at that without trying to find some further meaning in and from how they choose to spend the majority of their time in this life. This attitude also misses the point that what we get from life is what we put into it. If we have to work (and most of us do) to support a family or lifestyle or just eat, then doesn’t it make more sense to try and find some satisfaction in what we do? The 8-hour day will pass whether you find satisfaction in your work or not. But how much better would the quality of your life (or most any other life) be if what you did for those 8 hours did bring you some sense of satisfaction, fulfillment, contentment, happiness, accomplishment, success and/or pride, gratification or self-esteem? We aren’t saying that you must have all of your needs met by a job, but certainly the quality of life is better if you work doing something that offers you (and others) more than just a paycheck (unless having money is the driving force in your life and that alone will satisfy you).
People, it seems to us, from the beginning of recorded history have looked to find meaning and mission in their lives, whether it’s in social, political, spiritual, artistic, religious or personal arenas. When the structure of our society calls for us to “work� at a job to earn a “living�, it makes sense that we would transfer our need to find that mission and meaning (at least in part) to what we do at our “work�. It’s true that not every job will bring emotional fulfillment at the highest level, but in most every job there is something that can redeem it from being, as you most pessimistically put it, an “endlessly meaningless job�. From the cashier to that doctor who saves lives, from the janitor to the CEO, from the firefighter to the truck driver, from the movie star to the postal worker, and every job in-between, there is some facet or characteristic that makes it interesting and capable of bringing satisfaction to someone. The trick, of course, is to believe that you are deserving of this kind of job and to pursue it with conviction, knowing it exists, and when you find it your personal needs, goals and values will be better served.
Finally, having read the article “Why Emotional Satisfaction Won't Come From Your Job�, by Daniel Akst, we understand the claim that authors Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine make (in a nutshell, don’t try to find satisfaction from your job but look for it elsewhere) runs counter to what we’ve stated above. There wouldn’t be much wrong with their supposition if most of us were one dimensional, which we are not. Why isn't it reasonable that we could find some measure of meaning and satisfaction at our jobs and find it elsewhere as well (in family, in church, in community, or in hobbies) if we wanted? We don’t think these are mutually exclusive. How lucky we are to live in a time when we can pursue our dreams, if we choose, in the any and all the areas that make up the totality of our lives.