Work is an essential part of people’s life. It is impossible to give a universal explanation of why people go to work. Some people go to work to earn money and feed their families, the others want to be independent. Some people are provided for money and work just to do something, not to stay at home, and others do not think about money at the moment and word for their career. But there is one item which is important and is the aim for everybody: the work should be interesting and create the feeling of pleasure.
We are going to analyze the article of Dorothy Sayers “Living to work” and to discuss her attitude and thoughts about why people go to work. She decided to discuss the topic from different sides and represent several opinions about why people work.
There are people whose work goal is to earn money first and only then to devote themselves to the very work they should do. “They only want to make money so that they may devote themselves more single-mindedly to their work” (Sayers, 2002, p.435). These people are happier, they consider their work as an opportunity “for enjoyment and self-fulfillment” (Sayers, 2002, p.435). These people work with pleasure, they are not very tired of it at the end of the working day.
Dorothy Sayers (2002) in her work says that there are people who work only because they “love” their job. There are not so many such people. The money is also rather important for them, but they get great pleasure from what they do and they are the happiest people as they managed to find the job of their life.
The largest group of people, according to Dorothy Sayers (2002), says that “work is something hateful, only to be endured because it makes money and money is desirable because it represents a way of escape from work”. Unfortunately, it is the way of thinking of most people in almost all countries. People are always cut off the money and they want to earn them whatever it is possible.
The desire to work is influenced by lots of factors. The first one is the person’s attitude to the work in general. If a person is lazy, he or she will not be satisfied with any job. Personal characteristics play a huge role here. If the person is a hard worker any job will be interesting to him.
The money question is also rather important. When the person is motivated by money he or she is more likely to do that job. Money motivation is one of the strongest in the question of work likes and dislikes. The reason is that even when a person likes the job but the salary is miserable, he or she will get tired of it sooner or later. So, one of the main items concerned the job likeness is the money motivation which should be provided.
But money motivation is not often the main. It often occurs that people earn too much but hate their job. They consider their job as something “long round of soul and body destroying toil” (Sayers, 2002, p.436). These people hate their work, they consider it as something ruining and dangerous.
Very often people consider their work as a “hateful necessity” (Sayers, 2002, p.435). People used to the thought that they must work from their very childhood. Having grown up, they understood that work is the only way to stay alive: they have to pay bills, eat, to support the family. People go to work only with these thoughts and their job becomes for them “hateful necessity” (Sayers, 2002, p.435). They do not like their job but cannot leave the service as a great responsibility is lying on their shoulders.
The upbringing of some people dictates the aim of their work. The working traditions in the family do not give people the right to choose what they want. Some people are likely to continue the family business only because it brings lots of money, or just not to disappoint the family members. But in the middle of their life, people begin to understand that the choice they did was wrong. But this understanding changes nothing like half of their life has passed and they think it is too late to change something.
So, according to the article “Living to work” by Dorothy Sayers (2002), people work because they love what they do, they enjoy their work and this is the work that makes their life complete. The other reason, and the most widespread, is to earn money. But the motivation may be different: some want to escape from work for some time with the help of money, the others want to earn to be devoted later only to their job. But still, the vast majority of people consider their job as something necessary no matter whether they like it or not, and in most cases, these people hate what they do.
Reference List
Sayers, D. (2002). Living to work. The Dolphin Reader. Wadsworth Publishing.