# Escaping from Drudgery By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-12-03 Work consists of two primary components: the work and how we experience it. Both aspects can be changed, but neither is “easy” to change. The work itself is dictated, at least partially, by the “what” the work is essentially. If one is digging a ditch, there isn’t much getting around that aspect of the work. A ditch will be dug. Of course, tools can change the physicality of the task. Digging a ditch with a shovel is easier than doing so by hand. Digging a ditch with a trencher is easier than doing so with a shovel. The situation related to the psychology of work is similar in some respects. How one feels about the work one is doing is difficult to change. At a minimum, it is difficult to change by demand at a given moment. If a person has soured on one’s employer or sees no value in what one is doing, chances are good that one will be negatively disposed towards one’s work. When a task is fatiguing physically and emotionally, one can start to feel the drudgery of work. Many people suffer from this. Perhaps most do. This is tragic, as work can be one of the more immediate and direct ways humans can express themselves and establish meaning. For it to be accomplished positively, one must escape the drudgery of work. This is easier said than done. One can’t simply decide to have a better attitude about work. When a major source of one’s frustration resides with the corporate management and execution of work, developing a better attitude about the work helps to sustain the status quo. Such a “trying to have a good attitude about it” only contributes to others having to experience the drudgery of work. So, how can one become personally committed to something like digging? Well, context matters. A soldier might gladly and feverishly dig one’s foxhole in a war. The difference is that digging a foxhole during intense fighting is a personal endeavor, whereas digging a trench is alienating. The major way to escape the drudgery of work is to form a real, meaningful, personal commitment to the work. To the degree to which one can invest oneself in the work, that the work comes to reflect the individual, the work has meaning. This can be anything from making donuts to conducting analysis. Notice that until now, income hasn’t been discussed at all. While making more money is generally preferable to making less, simply making more money doesn’t make the work inherently less drudgerous; it simply reduces the number of people who will have any sympathy. Likewise, exhaustion isn’t inherently bad. One can come home exhausted from work, filled with pride that one gave everything to do something important. Escaping the drudgery of work is more than being in the right type of work or having a good attitude about it. Escaping the drudgery of work requires that the work provides a basis for becoming who one wants to be so that the work can reflect the individual. This is perhaps most obvious in creative works of art. It is no less present when one does anything well. Organizations should encourage and facilitate this; employees should demand it. #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Status Quo]] [[Attitude]] [[Drudgery]] [[Meaning]]