Everyone looks forward to being appreciated for their work, save none. But how many of us look only to other people for feedback when intrinsic feedback means so much more?
Think about it. It’s worth more to us that we’re satisfied about our labours than it’s worth to us that others are happy.
Financial and Health Sustainability
There are two keys to resting happy from our work:
1. Most importantly, we must be able to survive financially from our work. Being fairly remunerated is one thing; having enough to live on is another. This is nothing about rich tastes — it’s about having the food, clothing and shelter we need to survive and enjoy life. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
When we have what we need, financially, we’re then able to focus with some veracity on the second sought outcome in being content with our work.
2. As important as the first point is we must be able to regulate our work such that it’s not more than we can bear. In other words, we need to ensure our work doesn’t denigrate our health and broader wellbeing.
This is not always an easy thing to reconcile.
Many of us have had — and indeed, might have presently — very stressful jobs, and doubly bad are they if we’re not paid well enough to manage.
The Most Important ‘Justice’
Without a doubt the most important justice we feel is the sense of right and wrong so far as it impacts on ourselves. This makes sense anytime we see the fact that it’s only us that truly feels what we feel.
Our work makes us feel certain ways that we cannot change.
Relationships at work have the potential to make us thrive or shrivel. Not many people go to work simply for the money it pays, though for some it’s purely a matter of endurance that they keep turning up, doing their best to survive.
It’s because our work is such a personal exercise — efforts invested and rewards reaped — that we take it so seriously. We invest a lot of ourselves in our work.
Most of us would choose not to work if we could, but to not work is bad for us. We would hardly be challenged to grow without work (in this case, paid and unpaid), for it puts us in situations we wouldn’t willingly place ourselves in.
Work, as it is, defines us — our justice — what we’re really about — more than just about every activity. It’s because it threatens to, or actually does, push us beyond the envelope of our emotional safety.
The personal worth of work is a most important consideration; only we as individuals can define it for ourselves.
Even more important that we achieve these two sought outcomes: financial and health sustainability. If one or both lag, there are options, including studying for a higher calling.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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