Why We Work

Why do we work? Many people give more nobel reasons for themselves, yet expect most other people are doing it just for the money. However, this can have negative impacts on the workplace. The most productive and loyal workers are those that do it for more than money. A hospital custodian that views helping the patients as part of his purpose is much better than one just slogging through to get paid.

Unfortunately, many employers put too much focus on the monetary. This can actually reduce the higher purpose. Experiments, such as the Israeli day care late pick up charge show that a monetary incentive can reduce the intrinsic feelings and turn it into an exchange of goods. Similarly, when asking for volunteers for a service project, people are often willing to serve. If money is offered, it becomes a "job" and fewer people are willing to do the work. The legal profession has become obsessed with billable hours and revenue, driving more lawyers to the money focus vs. others.

Giving workers more autonomy can help them work for a purpose beyond money. Alas, this also takes away some of the control. An example is teachers - the salaries are low, so many are in for purpose of helping children. In order to "improve" performance, very regimented lesson plans are put in place, requiring teachers to teach everyone the same way regardless of abilities. The high stakes also lead to cheating and other problems. 

It is a challenge to get the appropriate incentives in place for workers. Each worker has different reasons for working. The biggest takeaway is that we in general tend to be too pessimistic about the reasons for others. There is room to improve.