Why Do People Keep Working? -- Rethinking Work Motivation from the Assumption That People Prefer Ease --

This paper reconsiders work motivation from a simple premise: people generally prefer ease, yet they must work in order to live. Rather than assuming that people naturally want to work, the paper asks why people continue working despite often not wanting to do so. It considers social recognition, family and community relationships, and workplace incentives as possible sources of motivation. It also examines the possibility that these motivations have weakened in contemporary society, while being recognized for good performance may sometimes result in additional work rather than meaningful reward. The paper presents this as a conceptual hypothesis rather than a definitive theory, and asks a simple question: why have people continued to work even when they would rather not?