Why are most workers miserable?

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According to research, there is an 83 percent probability that you spend the majority of your work time doing activities that you don’t enjoy (Marcus Buckingham, The Strong Shall Inherit the Earth, FastCompany, August 2005, Issue 97, p. 89). If you are one of the 83 percent, this means that you, in general, don’t enjoy your work, and therefore find it difficult to persevere. For you, work is drudgery, not a joy. Furthermore, it is extremely stressful to try to consistently perform at a high level in work that you don’t enjoy.

If indeed 83 percent of all workers do not enjoy the majority of their work activities, what does this imply about the efficiency and effectiveness of the typical company? Clearly, a typical company must be impacted by workers who are unmotivated. The morale of unmotivated workers could not be good. Such workers will be demoralized; hence, both the quality and quantity of work will certainly be negatively impacted.

So why are 83 percent of all workers miserable at work? To answer this question, we must ask another question: Why do people work? For most people work is simply a means of earning money to support their lifestyles; hence, decisions about work are driven largely by money. English novelist Henry Fielding said: “Make money your God, and it will plague you like the devil” (Quoted by Frank Demazio in the Family Finance Handbook, p. 18). My experience is that most people have, unwittingly, made money their God, and therefore are experiencing the misery of working for money.

So how do you stop worshiping money? Begin by acknowledging the reality. Then repent. Stop making money the driving factor in deciding what work you do. Instead, make what God created you to do the driving factor for choosing your life’s work. Whatever you were created to do, you are gifted to do. You can expect favor and success when you do what you were created to do. Favor and success breed satisfaction and joy, which lays the foundation for excellence. Then you will move from the 83 percent who are miserable at work to the 17 percent who love their work, and you may even help to increase that 17 percent!

Imagine a company whose workers love what they do! Such a company would most certainly produce excellent products and services with world-class efficiency. I have consulted with dozens and dozens of companies over the past two decades, but have yet to see a company like this. What I consistently see is that 83 percent of the workers do not enjoy the majority of their work activities. In a country that claims to worship God, this reality is a sad testimony to what we really worship–money.

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Gerald R. Chester is president of Strategies@Work, LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in helping business owners and management teams build world-class organizations based on the timeless universal principles of leadership and management taught in the Bible.

Since 1987, Dr. Chester has worked with dozens of companies in a wide variety of industries. His focus is to help clients build great organizations by understanding and implementing the key principles of enduring success?building equally yoked management teams, developing efficacious strategic plans, and executing with excellence.

In June 2005, Dr. Chester was awarded the Christian Leadership Award by Dallas Baptist University and the CEO Institute.

To reach Gerald, e-mail him at [email protected].