A few months ago, I was sitting in a breakout group of all the managers at my dayjob. We were talking about how to motivate people and how to keep people challenged, when one of my colleagues said something so wrong-headed I almost couldn’t contain myself.

“By definition, work isn’t fun,” he said. “That’s why we have to pay people to do it. If it were fun, people would do it for free.”

This is a common assumption or belief about work, but I don’t believe it for a second.

Where that goes wrong

If that sentiment were true, jobs that were more fun would be paid less, and jobs that were less fun would be paid more.

Last time I checked, jobs like cleaning bathrooms, digging rocks, or picking fruit in the hot sun are paid pretty miserably. Subsistence wages, if that.

While we’ve all got our list of jobs that would be incredibly fun, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that everything on your list probably gets paid more than janitorial wages.

And while there are exceptions to this very general rule (lots of creative jobs, like dance, pay extraordinarily poorly in the traditional venues), it’s instructive nonetheless.

What really happens

When we do work for a person or for an organization, we get paid because we are creating value. We are accomplishing something, making something possible that wouldn’t be possible without our labor.

A teacher gets paid (okay, usually not well) for designing a class and supporting students in learning the material. Without that teacher, those people do not learn.

An accountant gets paid to make sure all the money that goes into or out of any unit (an organization, a family) is accounted for so that the people in that unit can make informed choices about how they earn and spend money.

A choreographer gets paid to design new and illuminating dance routines to please the senses and the intellect. Without that work, our world would be poorer.

All of the work we do adds value to the world, either by enabling someone to do something they couldn’t have done otherwise, or by actually bringing new things into the world. This is a good thing.

And we dedicate a significant chunk of our time to creating that value because that enables us to do things like eat and pay rent and pursue the things we want – which creates value in our lives.

These are not opposed

Our whole culture is organized around this idea that we’ll spend 30-40 years working our tails off, often miserably, in order to retire early and enjoy our golden years. It’s like retirement is the carrot held out instead of the stick of debtor’s prison, and we wouldn’t work if we didn’t have one or the other pushing us forward.

And let’s be honest: There are plenty of people who are miserable in their jobs, because they’re doing work they don’t like, for people who aren’t very nice. But that’s not “the way things should be.” That’s a tragedy.

In fact, retirement, far from being the golden experience you see in the brochures, is often hugely stressful to people, because they got meaning and joy from their work and aren’t sure what to do with themselves now.

When we’re doing work we love and we’re good at, we’re creating value for ourselves, and we’re creating value for the world. At the same time. Right now.

Yes, there are tradeoffs

It’s true that we will sometimes be willing to take a lower salary in return for a job we really love. But that lower salary will likely still be above the line of what you need to support yourself and your family.

And it’s true that we could all use more time off than we usually get, which leads us to dreaming of job-

A few months ago, I was sitting in a breakout group of all the managers at my dayjob. We were talking about how to motivate people and how to keep people challenged, when one of my colleagues said something so wrong-headed I almost couldn’t contain myself.

“By definition, work isn’t fun,” he said. “That’s why we have to pay people to do it. If it were fun, people would do it for free.”

This is a common assumption or belief about work, but I don’t believe it for a second.

Where that goes wrong

If that sentiment were true, jobs that were more fun would be paid less, and jobs that were less fun would be paid more.

Last time I checked, jobs like cleaning bathrooms, digging rocks, or picking fruit in the hot sun are paid pretty miserably. Subsistence wages, if that.

While we’ve all got our list of jobs that would be incredibly fun, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that everything on your list probably gets paid more than janitorial wages.

And while there are exceptions to this very general rule (lots of creative jobs, like dance, pay extraordinarily poorly in the traditional venues), it’s instructive nonetheless.

What really happens

When we do work for a person or for an organization, we get paid because we are creating value. We are accomplishing something, making something possible that wouldn’t be possible without our labor.

A teacher gets paid (okay, usually not well) for designing a class and supporting students in learning the material. Without that teacher, those people do not learn.

An accountant gets paid to make sure all the money that goes into or out of any unit (an organization, a family) is accounted for so that the people in that unit can make informed choices about how they earn and spend money.

A choreographer gets paid to design new and illuminating dance routines to please the senses and the intellect. Without that work, our world would be poorer.

All of the work we do adds value to the world, either by enabling someone to do something they couldn’t have done otherwise, or by actually bringing new things into the world. This is a good thing.

And we dedicate a significant chunk of our time to creating that value because that enables us to do things like eat and pay rent and pursue the things we want – which creates value in our lives.

These are not opposed

Our whole culture is organized around this idea that we’ll spend 30-40 years working our tails off, often miserably, in order to retire early and enjoy our golden years. It’s like retirement is the carrot held out instead of the stick of debtor’s prison, and we wouldn’t work if we didn’t have one or the other pushing us forward.

And let’s be honest: There are plenty of people who are miserable in their jobs, because they’re doing work they don’t like, for people who aren’t very nice. But that’s not “the way things should be.” That’s a tragedy.

In fact, retirement, far from being the golden experience you see in the brochures, is often hugely stressful to people, because they got meaning and joy from their work and aren’t sure what to do with themselves now.

When we’re doing work we love and we’re good at, we’re creating value for ourselves, and we’re creating value for the world. At the same time. Right now.

Yes, there are tradeoffs

It’s true that we will sometimes be willing to take a lower salary in return for a job we really love. But that lower salary will likely still be above the line of what you need to support yourself and your family.

And it’s true that we could all use more time off than we usually get, which leads us to dreaming of job-free lives. But for most of us, lolling around the beach in a hammock would get old soon enough.

In other words, we don’t get paid because work is odious. We get paid because we are providing something of value to someone else.

So why does this matter?

It matters because, so long as work is defined as “no fun,” it’s hard to take seriously what we really, passionately want to do – because we assume it can’t make any money.

It matters because such an assumption makes us hesitate to charge money for our skills and talents, because they’re too fun to be worth much.

It matters because it makes thinking about work and careers depressing, instead of exciting.

It matters because it helps us settle for less than we’re worth, doing work that is less than we’re capable of.

free lives. But for most of us, lolling around the beach in a hammock would get old soon enough.

In other words, we don’t get paid because work is odious. We get paid because we are providing something of value to someone else.

So why does this matter?

It matters because, so long as work is defined as “no fun,” it’s hard to take seriously what we really, passionately want to do – because we assume it can’t make any money.

It matters because such an assumption makes us hesitate to charge money for our skills and talents, because they’re too fun to be worth much.

It matters because it makes thinking about work and careers depressing, instead of exciting.

It matters because it helps us settle for less than we’re worth, doing work that is less than we’re capable of.