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Working is more than having a job

• A welder fabricating a vessel
• A mother taking her children to and from school
• A student doing their homework
• A self-employed web designer based from their home
• A grandparent child-minding their grandchild each day
• A retired person working in the charity shop
• A bank manager leading a cub pack after a day in the office
• A husband caring for his infirm wife
• A job seeker attending a job club at their local church

All these people are working in the widest sense of the work.

What is work for some people is a hobby for others.  Take for example fishing, painting and decorating, gardening, child minding, teaching literacy etc.

Work is vital to our well-being. 

It is often the source of our identity – what do you do is often the first question we ask people when we meet them?

It gives us structure to our lives – we get up and go to work.  We stop working and enjoy what we call 'free time'

It is the place where we relate to others and form community – we have workmates and it is through work that we learn to fit in with other and appreciate differences

It provides a framework within which we mature and develop as people.  it is in meeting the daily challenges that we face in work that we grow and mature.

It allows us to feel that we make a purposeful contribution to society.  Work gives us a sense of value which may or may not be realistic.

If we don’t have any work to do, we invariably go and find something to do. We dread having nothing to do or being of no use

Work can be a source of joy and fulfilment.  It can also be a drudge, stressful and de-humanising.

Having a job

There is something particular, of course, about contractual work where we are paid and accountable to others.