Editorial November 10, 1997 Issue

Work, without the blues

Russ Gerber

As good as it is to have a job, it's not satisfying enough merely to be employed. Work we prefer to do, not just have to do, is the kind of employment experience we all want.

But over the years, in talking with or overhearing bankers, clerks, supervisors, technicians, mechanics, schoolteachers, a theme I hear regularly is a dread of their work. The reasons given vary. Stress. Tedium. The boss. Other workers. Once in a while, however, I'll run into someone who loves what he or she does for a living. Loves it. I remember a man once telling me, with a smile, not to mention to his boss that he found his work so rewarding that he would gladly pay to do the work, rather than get paid. What a difference in attitudes! Does it have to do with the work itself, or the worker?

One's initial response might be the work. And yet, if we don't love whatever it is we're doing, in the long run any activity we're involved in probably won't be satisfying.

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