On Not Being a Cubicle Monkey

What then is work? In its most basic sense, we do work when we apply our unique human capacities—often in combination with technology—to transform the raw materials of the world into something that benefits ourselves and our fellow man. Good work is inherently oriented toward human flourishing. You can read more about how we define human flourishing here but in short human flourishing is a good life well-lived. Flourishing is the internal good that defines work, giving it its very nature and being. In this sense work is unavoidable insofar as we are meant to have agency in the world and to love our neighbors. We cannot even conceive a world where this kind of work is not done. Work, then, is the primary means by which we love our neighbors. Good work is necessarily an expression of love toward the world. To love another person is to will his good. To will another person’s good is not only to want it for them, or to hope they get it, but to act and to do real work in the world that moves him toward that good. We will the good of other people, of our communities, and the world at large through our uniquely human God-given capacities.