Reflecting on the purpose of work

From the desk Chuck Fuller, CEO of The Results Company

This Labor Day weekend, as I usually do on holidays, I write to share with you the themes that are on my own mind, usually informed by the books I’m reading.

I often receive thought-provoking personal notes from many of you in response to these pieces. I consider it a privilege to be able to freely share with you what’s on my mind, and I’m eternally grateful for the conversations that often follow. Kelly and I wish you all a restful Labor Day weekend.

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Thus the Heavens and the Earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested. . .  – Genesis 2:1-2 (NKJV)

I’ve been in the workplace for 52 years. I went to work my first job as soon as I turned 14, and I’ve held a job continuously ever since. Five decades of work will teach a man a few things, and I’ll relate two takeaways that may resonate with you (or you may disagree).

First, I don’t think work is just about paying the light bill or being able to go out to dinner. I’m fairly certain now that my career – even the jobs early on that some might call menial – has given my life purpose.

In fact, I believe now that work is so ingrained in the human soul that to separate a person from it – to sentence him to a life of free time and leisure – is to separate him from meaning. Two book excerpts, which I’ll share shortly, only reinforced this belief as I set about preparing this.

And second, rest is part of work, not some indulgent departure from it. God spent six days working, and on the seventh day He rested.

Americans especially think it’s a badge of honor to be “busy” and work all the time. I’ve done it myself, and it’s one of the regrets I have as I look back on my 52 years in the workforce.

The fact of the matter is we should be resting at least one day per week. There are, of course, religious undertones to this that I hold, but it’s also practical from a business standpoint. We’re better off if we’re adequately rested, and so are our employees. The purpose of Labor Day, to me, is to recognize that we are designed to work, and we do work hard – but we’re also designed to rest.

The following passages from “Every Good Endeavor,” by Tim Keller, helped me reflect on the relationship between work, rest, and one’s purpose:

The book of Genesis leaves us with a striking truth – work was part of paradise. One biblical scholar summed it up: “It is perfectly clear that God’s good plan always included human beings working, or, more specifically, living in the constant cycle of work and rest. . .

Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer, and sexuality; it is not simply medicine but food for our soul. Without meaningful work we sense significant inner loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually. . .
 
Work is so foundational to our makeup, in fact, that it is one of the few things we can take in significant doses without harm. Indeed, the Bible does not say we should work one day and rest six, or that work should be balanced evenly – but directs us to the opposite ratio. Leisure and pleasure are great goods, but we can take only so much of them. If you ask people in nursing homes or hospitals how they are doing, you will often hear that their main regret is that they wish they had something to do, some way to be useful to others. They feel that they have too much leisure and not enough work. The loss of work is deeply disturbing because we were designed for it. This realization injects a deeper and far more positive meaning into the common view that people work in order to survive. According to the Bible, we don’t merely need the money from work to survive; we need the work itself to survive and live fully human lives. . .
 
The Bible, as we have seen and will see, exposes the lie that work is the only important human activity and that rest is a necessary evil – something we do strictly to “recharge our batteries” in order to continue to work. We look to what we know about God to make this case. He did not need any restoration of his strength – and yet he rested on the seventh day. As beings made in his image, then, we can assume that rest, and the things you do as you rest, are good and life-giving in and of themselves. Work is not all there is to life. You will not have a meaningful life without work, but you cannot say that work is the meaning of your life.

Work, rest, and purpose all tie together. Though I’m in the latter stage of my working life, I don’t intend to retire. I may slow down a bit and I may rest more, but I plan to keep working, as I see it as one of the great purposes in my life.

Indeed, founding The Results Company, and working with executives to make North Carolina the best place it can be, gives my life meaning. I take that very seriously.

I’ll leave you with two final excerpts – stories about people from very different worlds who share a common belief in the dignity of work, whatever that work may be.

The first is a story about Mike the Doorman from “Every Good Endeavor”:

Mike is a doorman in New York City. He is one of fifteen doormen serving a large Manhattan co-op; his apartment building is home to about one hundred families. Now in his early sixties, Mike emigrated to the U.S. from Croatia as a young man and worked many kinds of jobs, from restaurant business to manual labor. He has been a Doorman in the building for twenty years and is clearly distinctive in his attitude towards his work. To Mike it’s far from just a job. He cares about the people in the building and takes pride in helping with loading, finding parking spaces, and welcoming guests. He sets the standard for keeping the lobby and front of the building clean and attractive. 

When asked about what makes him drop what he is doing to get to the curb in time to help unload a resident’s car after a weekend away he responds, “that’s my job”, or “they needed help.” Why does he remember the name of every child? “Because they live here.” At one point, to the question, “but why do you work so hard at every part of this job?” he replied, “I don’t know . . . it’s just what I need to do to be able to look at myself in the mirror in the morning. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try my best every day.” He appears to work out a gratefulness for the job and for his life. He is glad to be in this country and for the opportunities it has given him.

 Most of the people Mike serves are professionals or business people who are probably glad not to be doormen. Some might even find the work of a doorman demeaning if they had to do it themselves. But Mike’s attitude shows that he recognizes the inherent dignity of the work he is doing; and in this, he brings out its goodness and worth. 

The final story is about President Abraham Lincoln from Jon Meacham’s “And There Was Light”:

Part of the contest [the Civil War] was to build a nation that could thrive should the Union survive. Lincoln was always focused on opportunity – he believed in a country that made lives like the one he was living possible. “Whatever is calculated to advance the condition of the honest, struggling laboring man, so far as my judgement will enable me to judge of a correct thing, I am for that thing,” Lincoln said in 1861. The president’s credo: “The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him – this is the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to all – gives hope to all and consequent energy, and progress and improvement of condition to all.”

Abraham Lincoln and Mike the Doorman of course have very different footprints in terms of their impact on the arc of world history. But they share one key trait in common: Leveraging their work to create purpose in their lives, and thereby positively impacting the lives of others.

It’s also a trait that The Results Company shares, as formalized in our vision statement: North Carolina is a state where businesses and citizens maximize economic and educational opportunities to prosper in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

While I think of work from a vocational and job perspective given my experience, work can take many forms. Indeed, the stay-at-home parents and caregivers are a critical part of our societies’ ability to flourish and function. A paycheck does not validate their worth. In addition, many people retire from a formal job but continue to “work” in their communities, organizations, and companies without compensation.

Work in its varied forms is one of the bedrocks of our society and one that, in God’s great design and goodness, has designed to bless us as well. Viewing it through the lens of serving our fellow man is the path to great purpose and fulfillment.

May you all have a wonderful, and restful, Labor Day!