Reasons for Working: Money, Recognition, Fulfillment?

Your Motivation on the Job: Money?

What are key reasons for working? Asking people this question (and I have asked thousands of candidates in my HR Consulting career) will trigger many different kinds of answers, from financial benefits or sheer survival, fulfillment, recognition, status, power, challenges, social interaction, fun, interest, curiosity and personal development, to meaningful contribution, helping others, service and “making the world a better place”. It is obvious that we all do have reasons to invest our time, ideas, thoughts (and sometimes physical power) in order to achieve something, to obtain a certain feeling or to gain other benefits.

So what is it we actually want from work? Can the answers be narrowed down to a mainstream set of key factors?

I have worked in executive search in Europe and Asia Pacific for years, and as different as the cultures are, the same applies to the peoples` mindsets. In some markets, and here we need to generalize a bit in order to come to a conclusion, monetary aspects are by far the No. 1 stated reason, whereas in other cultures feeling obliged to serve for a greater purpose or to develop a better society are predominantly mentioned reasons for working.

Home Office - Key Rules to Follow

Working from Home

- Key rules for operating from a Home Office -

In case you consider working from home - or are already doing so - here is some crucial advice on what you need and should do, and what are the possible pitfalls.

But first of all, look at a home office solution as a GREAT OPPORTUNITY, with the following advantages:

- maximize your available time by scrapping hours spent for commuting

- freedom to design your own work space as you like

- elevated grade of flexibility

- less direct control from your boss (if any)

- depending on the setup (and comparison variables), lower operating cost