The Value of Work10 Reasons Why Work is Valuable to the Individual and Necessary for Society

In May of 2021, Dave recorded a live video discussing the value of work and why working is critical to maintaining our dignity as humans and essential to the health of society. This was a timely message as America continued to try, and struggled, to climb it’s way back to pre-pandemic economic levels and workforce numbers. Dave argues that it is imperative that we instill the value of hard work into the next generation. Our survival depends on it.

You can view the video below or read on for a summary of the 10 reasons why work is valuable to society.

10 Reasons Why Work is Essential to Human Dignity and the Health of Society

The Dignity of the person is lived out in society by a fulfillment of personal responsibility. You cannot have dignity without some responsibility. Work is one such essential responsibility which shapes and fulfills human dignity by providing for the needs of one’s self and their family. 

Every single day you should be able to answer this question: How did my endeavor to produce help people in their lives? If you can answer this question, that’s dignity.

So here are 10 reasons why ANY work, regardless of whether you’re working a cash register at McDonalds or the CEO of a Fortune 500 business, is valuable and necessary.

1. Work Teaches Responsibility

A job immediately places you in a sphere of influence. In the workplace, you start rubbing shoulders with other people and the task you accomplish, no matter how small, is making a difference in people’s lives. So, one value of work is that a job inherently gives you responsibility and therefore dignity.

2. Work Connects People

Coworker relationships at the workplace have the potential to form long-lasting, life-impacting relationships. Work is a way to connect.

3. Work Produces Endurance

Sometimes, no matter how powerful the motivation, work is difficult. Work teaches us to push through even when it becomes difficult. There is no ladder of success. There is only a ladder TO success. Success takes hard work, persistence, sweat, and tears. The ladder to success teachers endurance and perseverance. If you try to skip the rungs, you might get to the top, but you won’t have the strength to stay at the top.

4. Work Increases Self-Esteem

It is difficult to maintain a healthy self-image when you are not productive.

5. Work Gives You Money

Everyone wants money! And earned money provides a much greater sense of dignity than “free” money. There is a necessary and valuable sense of accomplishment that comes with a reward/paycheck from hard word.

6. Work Offers Daily Impact

If you don’t go out, rub shoulders with others, and be a producer you will turn into an island – a self-centered recluse. This is not good for society or for you as an individual. One of the greatest joys of work is that you can know you are impacting others and empowering others to have an impact.

7. Work Challenges Comfort Zones

You will never grow inside of your comfort zone. If you’re comfortable, you’re not growing. The workplace environment provides a valuable space where an individual needs to improve, meet performance metrics, and learn new things. The challenges of the workplace forces you to move outside of your comfort zone, allowing you to grow.

8. Work Is Not About You

We live in a society that is obsessed with “me.” It’s time we drop the pursuit of frivolous fame and pursue significance instead. Fame is self-centered. Significance is other-centered. Work helps an individual invest in a greater cause, producing something that is greater than “me.” As humans, we were made to be creators (in the image of The Creator), working to produce something outside of ourselves that is bigger than ourselves.

9. Work Improves Society

If you want to fix our society, put people to work. People are intrinsically wired to work and contribute. When people are producing the world becomes better – a bit more like it’s intended to be. If you want to improve society, start working. Be a contributor, not just a participant.

10. Work Allows Independence

In America we value independence and freedom. Handouts make you a slave to the give. As the old proverb says, “The borrower is a slave to the lender.” Work frees you from the bondage of dependence. The production and reward of work inherently provides a valuable sense of independence.

So those are 10 reasons why any work is valuable and necessary for human dignity and a healthy society.

What do you think? Can you come up with other reasons why work is valuable? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

And remember…You’re getting what you’re getting because of what you’re doing. If you want something different in the future you have to change what you’re doing. Maybe it’s time America gets back to work.