What is Work?

My little brother can be really unpleasant. He and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum and adhere to very different world views. We also chose very different lines of work. I’ve been self-employed since I completed grad school at 32 because working on issues I care about and being able to control my own schedule were higher priorities than economic security. My brother went straight into the military after college and has been in a very structured and stable income situation his entire adult life.

A couple weeks ago, in a text exchange, my brother asked what I was up to and I respinded that I was working a lot and mentioned a post I was writing and a project underway in my ministry. My brother texted back, “You and I have different definitions of what work is.” Obviously, that’s a snotty comment but I’ve developed pretty thick skin with him. I didn’t respond but it got me thinking about work. What is work? How do we define it? Why do we do it?

Certainly, there’s a survival component. We’re either working to grow and gather the food and construct the shelter or working for money to be able to pay for food and shelter. In fact, as I write and speak about a lot, the current Western Capitalist, consumption-driven economic system is brutal and many, many people wind up spending a huge chunk of our lives working at soul-starving jobs just to meet basic economic needs.

I have mad respect for all the people who do what they must to make money, support their families, etc. My parents did exactly that for much of their lives. I worked as a horse trainer, construction worker, sales person, ice-cream scooper, restaurant busser, plastic surgery assistant, heavy equipment operator, and more before setting out as self-employed. I’m grateful for that diversity of experience and I know first-hand that we can be of value and find value in nearly any endeavor. I also know that some jobs just flat-out suck.

Our current western culture is dominated by the construct of productivity as anything that makes money and grows the economy. I’ve found it valuable to explore how I define “productive” when it comes to both work, and life in general.