Human Psychology of Work ‘You are what you do’

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle made a distinction between praxis (an action done for it own sake) and Poiesis (an activity aimed at the production of something useful).  With this distinction, he made it big in the western world. The effect of this distinction is playing its role even till date.

(We request readers to read Work from Home series 1 to understand the basic definition of Productivity before reading this article)

The history of work

Work as an activity  for the sake of something (Poiesis) was widely appreciated and applied from early industrial period till date. Work was always seen as a means to an external end.

Once work became structured (industrialised), it was seen more as a gainful employment in the market economy.  It simply meant working for gain of something. It eventually became a means to once livelihood – work for a living.

From an individual point of view, work was pointed to income, and from a broader-socio-economic point of view, it meant creation of common wealth.  Let us not get into the nitty-gritty of the matter here.

It was pictured by the market that  a man with a job had more of self-esteem (perceptive) and the society recognised  that individual as source of contribution.  Later it took on a social connotation. Rightly so,  German philosopher Hegal and French Sociologist Dukheim pointed out, “individuals came to a livelier appreciation for their dependence of others and the need for cooperation”.

Thus work not only became a means of livelihood but also became the cause of man’s connectedness to the broader society.

The end result was the worker in a person was an alienated individual within himself, since work benefited him only as an external stimuli, not as internal stimuli toward realisation and productivity of self and the society.

Note: this is one of the reason why work is always perceived by many as burdensome.

Understand human psychology of work

Human Psychology of Work may be part of applied Psychology.

What are the two things of happiness? “love and work, work and love” said Sigmund Freud in his famous work Civilisation and its Discontents.

We cannot be lazy for nothing. Even the laziest person cannot be lazy all the time.

Let us try this exercise, imagine you go out for two months of leave or vacation away from work. After initial days of spending time in holiday, You will find it exhausting. You would want to come back to work. Why? Because you want to put your productive energy to your best use. It is in our natural state to be producing. And it cannot change.  We are meant for it.

You are what you do

Csikszentmihalyi in his work ‘flow: the psychology of optimal experience’ gave the co-relation between work and leisure. He said, while he experimented with professionals at work and lesiure, the ‘optimal experience’ was seen as a flow situations in work, rarely in leisure.

He goes on to say that we are conditioned to have optimal experience at leisure, which in reality is not.  Rest and leisure are good and necessary, but they don’t involve the engagement and concentration that are required of a truly satisfying experience, which is FLOW.

Often work comes as tiresome, when it is seen as result of one’s ambition or other people’s ambition. When we look at work as fruit of our mission/vision/organisational vision that we are part of, it is totally a different experience.

The problem with work as ‘load’ comes from its narrow definition, not because of work itself. 

An example : what do you do for a living? The answer often is professional –  connected to mechanical, civil or IT etc…

The narrow explanation comes from this concept.  Work can be seen from two different angles that determine the type of productivity that we yield. 

• Work is a burden, when it is for a living
• Work is  a blessing, when it is for a meaning

Decoding Work for our times

Today we need to go beyond the concept of work as Poiesis (for the sake of something else) to Praxis (action done for its own sake). 

Times have changed for sure. We have moved on from agricultural, industrial to knowledge world of doing business, where egalitarianism of the producer model of work  must pave way to productive  holistic human empowerment model of work.

Work will be a burden, if it is continued to be seen as a means for a living. Such a mindset will lead to escapism, poor job counts, inefficiency and lack of productivity, late coming and above all poor quality of work.

Work will be a blessing if it is perceived as an important channel of meaning and fulfilment. Such a ministerial form of work will lead to personal responsibility, better job counts, efficiency, personal and professional empowerment and above all supernal quality of product and life on the whole.

WFH Praxis – A New Culture of Work

WFH will never be a point of contention, if it is perceived as Praxis than Poiesis.

A new culture of work is the call of our times. This work will call for strong ethical weight from both ends; the management and the workforce, while at the same time improve the quality of our products and services, and life on the whole.

Work is  always a meaning giving reality and will reveal the person you are. That is why it is said, ‘you are what you do.’

Elias Moses is a Senior Business Strategist, Consultant, Researcher, Corporate and Leadership Trainer, Orator, Columnist and an Entrepreneur. He is also the Founder and Managing Director of  a growing reality firm in south India. He is also the founder of Managing Next, an Online portal for knowledge share and Management Consulting. 

The author can be contacted@ 

email: elias@managingnext.in,  linkedin:  www.linkedin.com/in/eliasmoses