quotations about work
Many companies see happiness at work as an intangible "nice to have", rather than an important organisational priority. While you can't force employees to be happy -- or control every factor that contributes to happiness -- it's still possible to create the conditions that will help to promote happiness and positivity at work.
ROBERT HALF
"Happiness at work -- is it natural or necessary?", Business Zone, March 31, 2017
I am not sure that life, to any one,
A fuller measure of contentment brings,
With all its gifts, than in the draught which springs,
From honest work, well plann'd, and bravely done.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN
"Labor"
When the toiler bends and labors till his sweat turns into pearls,
'Tis a nobler decoration than the coronets of earls.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Caelestis"
If we look at things from a results level -- what hours one puts in -- which is, I think, where we're going in the future of work, then we're going to have to balance our lives a little better. And, therefore, the organisational challenge really will be how we facilitate people to do that.
MARGOT SLATTERY
"Data is absolutely essential to the future of work", Silicon Republic, March 23, 2017
If every man should work at that for which nature fitted him, the cows would be well tended.
FLORIAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is not work that kills; but no work and overwork.
ALDO MANUZIO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Some people were born to work for others. Not in a mindless, servile-way--rather they simply work better in a set regimen of daily tasks and functions. Others were born of the entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy the demands of self-determination and the roll of the dice.
RICHARD PAUL EVANS
The Christmas Box
Work is the Rent we pay for our time on Earth.
TUBBY CLAYTON
attributed, Saga Magazine, January 2009
Have you beheld a man skillful in his work? Before kings is where he will station himself; he will not station himself before commonplace men.
SOLOMON
Proverbs 22:29
Are there many situations more sublimely tragic than the struggle of the soul with the demand to renounce a work which has been all the significance of its life--a significance which is to vanish as the waters which come and go where no man has need of them?
GEORGE ELIOT
Middlemarch
How technology will transform the future of work is the burning question. And interestingly, when I talk with other executives about it, the conversation quickly moves from the technology itself -- to the people. Because at the heart of this digital revolution are human beings. And companies are trying to get their arms around what this Liquid Workforce means for their business, customers, communities and employees.
ELLYN SHOOK
"The Future of Work Is Now", Huffington Post, January 19, 2016
It just seems so useless to have to work so hard and nothin' ever really seems to come from it.
TOM PETTY
Here Comes My Girl
The truth is, any of us in a position to choose and chase work out of love do so from a place of relative privilege. Overwhelmingly, work in the world is done for income, and income alone, and love doesn't even get a look-in.
SIMON CASTLES
"Do what you love mantra devalues hard work", The Age, February 9, 2016
A man who looks for easy work goes to bed tired.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
When master and workmen unite the work is soon done.
WAKATAUKI
attributed, Day's Collacon
Having boundaries in life, especially at work, is important for protecting our happiness. Boundaries allow us to say no when we need to, but also mean we can say yes when the opportunity is right.
LOUISE LAMBERT
"You can't do it all: turning down work is sometimes a necessity", Albawaba Business, February 3, 2016
If a man does not go about his work with enthusiasm, it means that he has not yet found a work that he likes. Every mortal is a busy bee when he comes to the task that Destiny has set aside for him.
GEORGE ADE
"The Fable of the Old Fox and the Young Fox", True Bills
Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Labor produces marvels for the rich but it produces deprivation for the worker. It produces palaces, but hovels for the worker. It produces beauty, but deformity for the worker. It replaces labor by machines, but it throws one section of the workers back to barbaric labor, and it turns the remainder into machines.
KARL MARX
"Alienated Labor", Economic and Philosophic
If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn't anything you can't do if you want to.
JIM HENSON
It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider