Ah, “working.” That awful, wonderful word keeps us fed, clothed, and busy. But, what really is the purpose of working? Why do we work? Is it for survival only? Is it to improve the human race? Or is it just something to support our “real life” outside of work?In my experience, work generally has four main aspects:

• It provides an income
• It contributes towards a communal goal
• It develops a skill set
• It encourages social interaction

Obviously, each job has the above aspects in different amounts and emphasis. The ideal is to maximize all four, or to at least match those four to the worker’s own interests. A strong deficiency in any of these tends to make that job generally unenjoyable for me and, it seems, for my coworkers.

The income part is not as obvious as it sounds. On the surface, it seems like the higher the salary, the better. However, that’s slightly misleading. Today’s culture is highly money-centric; the more money you have, the higher your status and the more toys you can buy. A quality income is not necessarily a high salary - instead, a quality income is one which provides you with a comfortable existence. That includes health care, insurance, and so forth, and isn’t strictly monetary in nature. The effects of poor income on workers are obvious - bad morale and bad health. By not earning an income that satisfies our basic needs plus a little extra, we are doing ourselves and our community a great disservice.

The second aspect of work, fulfilling a communal goal, is a very social one. The community can be as focused as the company (i.e., maximizing profit) or as general as humanity (e.g., fighting world hunger), but it always involves cooperation towards a common goal. Not only is the worker’s enthusiasm for the goal itself important, but also the involvement and interaction with everyone else in the community. A deficiency in this aspect tends to make for poor morale, poor motivation, and high turnover. A surplus in enthusiasm for this goal, however, tends to boost the other three aspects of working, and especially makes developing a skill set easier.

Developing a skill set is both advantageous to the other aspects of working and beneficial to yourself. Not developing your skills further as part of a job - no, as part of your life - is really screwing yourself over. Even the most mundane of jobs can provide a useful skill set. I worked as a delivery driver for Domino’s for a year, and in that year I learned how to make good pizzas quickly (handy for parties), vastly improved my driving ability, and established good habits that would be invaluable in developing my leadership abilities. Though I work in a much higher-paid job now, I still value those skills. Neglecting to throw yourself into learning new skills or developing existing ones is like sitting on the couch waiting for someone to get you a snack from the kitchen that’s ten feet away. It’s just plain lazy.

Speaking of laziness, if you’re not interacting socially at work, you’re wasting your time. Humans are very social creatures. Without interacting with others, we are restricting ourselves tremendously. The people I meet through work are vital to my life; without them, I wouldn’t develop opinions, connections, or abilities nearly as quickly, and the same is true for them. Anyone who doesn’t have informed opinions about topics work-related or non-work-related tends to be pretty boring. Anyone without connections won’t get far in life, since it’s through connections that new opportunities - of any kind - arise. And improving your abilities is vital to growing as a person.

Interact. Develop. Fulfill. And earn. If you’re not doing those four things at your job, you either need a new job or a serious review of your life outlook. Your ideal job should maximize all four, whether you work for a big mega-corporation, a small nonprofit, or yourself. Take care of all four, and life will be a whole lot more fun and more fulfilling…and really, that’s what it’s all about.

If you have stories about a time when your job fulfilled these goals well (or badly!), let’s hear about them in the comments!