What inspires you to work?

[Luna]

Seriously, not "if I got paid 6 figures..."

What inspires you to work? What makes your day? What kind of managers do you love to work for? What are the things that give you the best job satisfaction?

Luna...surveying....

[blas]

There is no inspiration for me to work. It's out of mandatory and legal responsibility to pay rent, pay off my car loan, pay my parents for the loan they gave me, pay off any other debts I may have...

Oh...and to keep gas in the car and food in my mouth.

I'm not saying I'd rather collect welfare and foodstamps, nor would I rather marry rich and never have to work a day in my life again.

I've never been without a job since age 14 (except for a month where I quit the honkey tonk restaurant and started at the gas station). It'd be too weird not to work after 5 years of it. I see at least 60+ years of work in my future. Hell, the way social security is going, I'll still be working when I'm so sick I can't get out of bed without pissing myself.

[Will-Mun]

Simple answer, money. I need money to buy things, and until I get a photocopy machine that can detect microscopic security tags on money, I'll be doing it.

Not simple answer... My girlfriend. She motivates me in ways she will never know. She makes me WANT to get up and go to work, simply so I can have the cash to see her, and take her out.

She makes me want to be strong enough to take care of her, to move forward in my life where I would rather just stand still...

When we broke up ages ago, I fell into a HARD slump, I somehow managed to stay with my job for many months more, but it just didn't work, and aside from my brief employment at Gamestop, I haven't been able to even get a job since.

But I'm back together with her, and again I feel that strength, that motivation to be someone she deserves to be with, to be someone who isn't going to stand still in life anymore.

-End sap-

I'm sorry, I have something in my eye *Sniff*

[katie kaboom]

Same here. I work to be able to support myself. Not because i love it, or i'm passionate about it or anything else. But because money doesn't grow on trees.

[TNT]

Hmmm... this is a question that's more complicated than it looks. My resume is littered with jobs where my ending pay was the same as my starting pay. I basically needed a paycheck, so I was motivated enough to keep a job (usually)... but not motivated enough to really excel at it.

And then I got to the cable business... In a year and a half, my pay is 50% higher than it was when I started. Obviously, something's different now...

I'll ponder it and come back with a better answer.

[justZu]

I genuinely like waiting on nice customers. Thankfully the nice outnumber the sucky by a large margin.
I get a lot of satisfaction from running my stand well and having everything balance out at the end of the night.
I like being able to contribute to the upkeep of my family. If just my husband worked, we would live and pay our bills and that would be about it , but now we can afford to have better Christmases and a vacation during the summer. It is a little easier to deal with life's unexpected(and costly) surprises with the extra money I bring in.

[Ringtail Z28]

I have bills to pay, that's the only inspiration I have to show up at work.

The pay isn't too bad, but I work with assholes, both as coworkers and customers.

[Sofar]

Well, I do like feeding hungry people, but I wish they were a tad more grateful. Actually I'd like to pursue something a little more artistic than frialating, if I could make the world a little less ugly with my skills with an airbrush then that'd inspire me.

[iradney]

I like helping people. I like that glow I get when someone says Thank you, and means it. I like my sup. He's understanding and will bend the rules for you if he can. He cares about us

[Broomjockey]

I'm going to assume that the question isn't actually "Why do I work" but what makes me put forward a good effort at work.

And the answer is fairly simple. I like doing a good job. I like to know I'm doing a good job. The best managers I've had, I think, are the ones that take the time -even if just to the group- to say "You're doing awesome. I appriciate it."

In fact, I already love my newest boss, because during training, he asked my group what motivates us, and I told him that the biggest thing for me is being told I did good work. And he listened. He sent me an email thanking me for handling the check-in of a group that showed up over an hour early, while I was at the front-desk by myself, and no one had left me any information. He also included the compliment that he received on my behalf from the leader of the group.

What can I say? I'm easy to please, and cheap too. Doesn't cost you anything but 10 seconds to say "Hey, good job for X."

[Dragonlover]

I work so I'm not claiming benefits.

Ok, thats a slightly hypocritical line since currently I'm on the dole, but if somebody would give me a job without requiring me to have a drivers license for ID purposes I'd probably be at work right now. I just can't stand these people who do nothing but sponge off the state, and I hate to be lumped in with them just because my last job was making me feel shitty as hell.

[/rant]

Also, actually having bosses that respect you and realise you're human and not a robot is awesome.

Dragonlover

[AirHostess]

I like helping passengers and making them happy and it's nice when they get off the plane and say they had a great flight

[Mr. Rager!]

Besides money? Something to do. Even if I were to win a huge lottery, I'd still work at something...

Besides, you can resist the challenge of a difficult customer? I know sometimes I complain about it, but my life would be so boring without them. I actually like what I do.

[Jpurple]

I genuinely enjoy my students, and being able to see how they learn and change over the course of the school year. That's why I teach small children- it's so easy to see the growth and tell when they've learned something. Also, with very little effort on my part, my students are enthusiastic about everything, which makes me more enthusiastic.

Now, if I could just apply a clue-by-four to some of their parents....

[Fera Festiva]

Echoing what others have said - money. I do my job, I do everything I'm supposed to do and I don't go out of my way to do it badly, I even put in extra effort when I have to, but there's little actually keeping me here except for bills that need paying (and the fact that I've been on the dole before, when I was made redundant, and it was depressing).

In my dream job, I'd spend all day getting to solve actual, interesting problems, doing research, figuring stuff out and coming away with something concrete to show for it (a well-researched and well-written paper, an art piece, a theatrical prop, whatever). If that were the case, the work would be its own reward. A girl can dream, eh?