KEY POINTS:
There are probably plenty of people who'll tell you they hate their job, dream of winning Lotto and want the freedom to do nothing.
But the dream may not be all it's cracked up to be according to business psychologist Jasbindar Singh. She says the daily grind of going to work fulfils a range of needs beyond the obvious of money and status.
"These include the need for achievement, contribution, sense of belonging, learning, growth and advancement," she says.
"Work provides people with a sense of meaning, purpose and relevance. Once people are able to satisfy their basic survival needs, work is able to fulfil other higher level needs including that of creative self-expression and how one perceives their purpose in life."
Singh says work provides a routine and structure to our lives and recommends that anyone that moans about going to work should speak with someone that has been made redundant.
"One of the things that people out of work miss and have difficulty adjusting to is suddenly not having the pre-existing structure and having to shape their day and time," says Singh.
"The social aspects of work are important - the teamwork and collaboration, the laughter, the camaraderie and banter and the general social exchange.
"From an employee engagement perspective, people that are most engaged typically have a good relationship with their immediate manager as well as other positive and supportive peer relationships and find work a challenging and fun place to go to."
But what if someone came into enough money so they didn't have to work again. What is Singh's advice?
"I would ask what their reason for resigning was," says Singh. "A question I may ask is, 'what will you be gaining and what will you be losing by not working?' This is to enable them to reflect and think through deeper and perhaps unconsidered factors in their reasoning. If they were moving on to pursue other passions and challenges in life that would be great.
"However, if their thinking was along the lines of 'now I'll be able to do all those fun, pleasurable and enjoyable things I have always wanted' then I would say think very carefully and cautiously as to how they proceed.
"This is because research has shown that these so-called solutions are only temporary fixes and that once the pleasure of that activity is over, people are back to the same levels of happiness or unhappiness that they were before."
And being out of work for any length of time can be unhealthy according to Singh. She says a person's level of skills and knowledge can get rusty as they get behind with new development, ideas and changes.
"People can catch up of course," she says. "But the longer one is out of work, the more their self-esteem can erode. As time passes, the barrier to get back in the work cycle may seem bigger and motivation could also wane.
"If one's social circle then becomes other people who are out of work, this could also become self-reinforcing."
Singh says people with time on their hands - be they retired or unemployed - should fill the gap by doing something worthwhile.
"Do voluntary work, join an organisation or community group, pursue your other passions and interest, find young ones to mentor and continue learning and stretching your horizons," she says. "Keep yourself active physically and mentally. Don't let others define what you should or shouldn't be able to do especially if your health is still pretty robust."
Ultimately, says Singh, work and life has to have a balance. She is concerned for people that allow their job to define who they are. Because when the job goes, so does their identity.
"It is not a healthy and sustainable formula when work equals identity," she says. "For example, I have worked with executives - high-performing, very driven individuals who crashed (for many different reasons) - and when work was no longer there they went into a panic as this was what they equated their whole identity with.
"So there is a need to have a more holistic sense of self and identity, which embraces all of one's emotional, social, family, physical and spiritual needs and dimensions of life."
Singh says the fundamental questions about the purpose of one's life and existence come back into their consciousness including 'who am I' and 'what is it all about'.
"The Socratic 'know thyself' principle is a useful one," says Singh. "One has to know and understand one's own needs and motivation in life and how else they might fulfil these if they are not working."
* Jasbindar Singh is the author of Get your Groove Back.
Contact Steve Hart at www.stevehart.co.nz
