1st October 2025
What is the purpose of work?
Yesterday’s Counting On highlighted some of the diversity around work – and principally that no all work is paid, and indeed nor is all paid work remunerated at the same rate.
According to Ecosia, work, as a noun, is activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result, and as a verb, is to be engaged in physical or mental activity in order to achieve a result. Work might be contrasted with play if play js seen as an activity that has no purpose or result. But play does have a purpose: it enables people (especially children) to learn; it helps people relax; it enables people to explore alternative worlds. Work might be contrasted with being lazy if lazy is seen as not being bothered, or not caring, or being selfish. This brings in a moral dimension and asks the question is not working always bad? Is all work inherently good? Which comes to the question, what is the purpose of work?
We work to stay alive – eg gathering, growing, and preparing food to eat; building, maintaining, cleaning a safe place of shelter – ie a home; looking after our mental and physical health which might include making medicines, or listening to people’s troubles, taking exercise – and making that exercise fun; through education to ensure that what we learn that makes life better is shared and passed on; through exploring and researching and just being curious so as to understand better the intricate ways by which this world exists and flourishes; making clothes and tools, making things that keep our homes warm (or cool) and making things that make our homes homely; making shoes and bicycles and other means of transport (including roads and bridges etc) so that we can meet other people and exchange ideas and goods; protecting the ecosystems in which we live – keeping them safe and in good health, ensuring the safety and well being of each other and all other living beings with whom we share this planet; and finally praying for as St Benedict said, to,work is to pray and pray is to work.
All this is about ensuring a flourishing life for all and is morally good. But what if work is used to harm people, to harm other living beings? What is work is used to exploit the planet, to denude it of resources and to pollute it? What is work is used to benefit and small minority at the expense of everyone – and everything – else?
How do we ensure that work is used to do good things and not bad things?
The Green Tau 