When do we feel good about our work?

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely broke down why people enjoy their work and continue to do it. While he asserts that most people think that the motivation for work is income, people’s desire to complete their work is actually much more complicated than that.

Ariely wanted to explore why some people seemed to enjoy their work more than others, despite doing the same job and earning the same money from it.  In his first experiment exploring this, people were given Legos and asked to build a sculpture for 3 dollars. When they completed the sculpture, it was placed under the table, and they were offered $2.70 to complete the same sculpture. This pattern continued with the price decreasing by 30 cents until people eventually decided to stop making the sculpture.  In the second condition of this experiment, when the participant was building the second sculpture, the second one was taken a part in front of them.  They found that people stopped making the sculpture much sooner than when they didn’t watch their work be destroyed.

Ariely visited a company where people who had just been working on a project for 2 years had been told that it was canceled. He found that people on that project were very depressed and upset that the CEO didn’t acknowledge their work. Ariely completed another experiment in which three groups were provided a worksheet to complete for a price which would decrease similar to the first experiment. In the first group, the participants' work was looked over before being set aside. In the second group, the participants' work was simply ignored and set aside. And in the third group, the participants' work was shredded immediately after they completed it. Ariely found that those whose work was acknowledged would continue to work for significantly less money than those whose work was either destroyed in front of them or ignored. 

These two experiments display how people’s motivation for working is contingent on much more than income.  Instead, people’s motivation to work is based on how much they feel as though they are contributing to a goal and their hard work is being acknowledged.  People’s purpose at work greatly changes their desire to work. Feeling as though work completed has no purpose since it is destroyed in front of them or ignored, resulting in people completing less work. However, when the purpose was shown through acknowledgment, people were much more likely to continue the work despite income decreasing.

This TEDTalk was really eye-opening for me. While I had always understood that there was a correlation between feeling acknowledged and purposeful in work, I always thought that the motivation really boiled down to income.  Through this talk, I was able to realize how much of what people do depends on a sense of accomplishment.  It stood out to me that ignoring someone’s work had basically the same effect as destroying the work in front of their eyes.

In my own personal experience, it connects to unpaid internships. While there is no income being earned, people are motivated to do the work so much so that they are regular practices. Personally, unpaid internships have been a way for me to explore what I want to do without the restrictions that getting paid would cause. Being a research assistant at Perform with Purpose gives me an opportunity to do research while still being able to earn money in different roles as well as take classes on the side.  If I were being paid for the position, it would be more time restricting and I might not have as much time to pursue other things I’m passionate about. This can be connected to the fact that people feel as though they are a part of something bigger and can see their work being used.  For example, I’ve completed unpaid internships for smaller companies.  While I’m not earning any income, I am able to see my work be used (such as published on this site) and therefore feel like I’m helping something bigger than I am. Additionally, I’m able to gain experience in my desired field to make sure that I feel good about the work I do before I sign a contract for a bigger company.

Feeling as though you have a purpose and are working towards a goal through acknowledgment is really important for overall motivation to complete a task. Without this sense of purpose and not knowing what you’re working towards, it can be very damaging mentally since it can feel as though nothing you do is being acknowledged or used. This TEDTalk really exemplifies these findings and emphasizes the need for purpose in work.

Written by: Bryn Garick

Sources: Ariely, D. (2012). What makes us feel good about our work? Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work? | TED Talk. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work