We live in a society where you are expected to get a regular job and work eight hours a day five or more days of the week like it is a natural thing to do because we are capable of doing so. Work for me is always something that has been foreign to an extent because I haven't come from a traditionally hard working background, so I never really got the values of hard work instilled into me and I have only recently started to be fully aware and truly understand the value of hard work.
However I think in many occasions hard work can be a complete waste of time for ones self. Humans are naturally pack animals, which I have spoken about before, so we all have a desire to feel wanted and needed and a part of that is having a role to play, naturally in a tribe everyone would play their part toward survival. Because of this when a person has no purpose and spends their time doing nothing they quickly become lost which can spiral out of control, so I do firmly believe that we are to an extent made to work.
In the book the science of self realization it documents a conversation between Ms. Nixon and Srila Prabhupada, whose books I would like to talk about in the future, Srila says "Why am I working so hard? The birds, The bees, elephants and other creatures have no profession, yet they are also eating. So why should I unnecessarily work so hard? Rather, let me try to solve the problems of life - birth, death, old age and disease."
Naturally if we look at any other living thing on earth they all work hard enough to eat and drink but they don't spend the rest of their time trying to work more once they have eaten or drank. They spend their time doing other more relaxing activities. If all other animals have this pleasure why should humans be any different, why should we spend hours on end working in careers that we don't like when it takes little time to garner enough to eat and drink.
I also think it is important to note that Srila does say 'why should people take part in unnecessary work', which I agree with we should still work so that we can have our much needed food and water but why spend your time, the most valuable thing you have, on working so hard in a job you don't want when you have what you need and then you can focus so much more time on working on solving the bigger issues and questions of life.
To me it does seem crazy to work so hard and so many hours when we could spend time not only solving the above issues but also exploring what our minds have to offer and the beauty life has to offer. I think one thing that is important is intelligence, intelligent creatures want to work and solve things, you can see the difference in people, smart people often work long hours because they are constantly trying to solve something or are looking for something whereas a less intelligent person can be entertained by lesser activity. You can see the same thing in many animals for example throughout my life I have been a dog owner and when I had a collie they needed to do exercises that stimulated their brain or they would get stir crazy whereas other dogs I have had that were much less intelligent would be happy to sit around doing nothing all day.
Productivity:
Further than just the spirituality and general pleasures of life what about actual productivity in the workplace.
Productivity round the board in has dropped massively in many countries from before 2000 to now and I think one of the big factors to play in this is the growth of social media, reality television, and having easy access to the internet. All of this allows people to see what other people are doing how they are doing and just what else is out there in the world and now that you can really see what the world has to offer and all the different types of careers out there.
Because people spend so much time now looking at others and what they have and what they do it can make people become frustrated with their current position or job, with that frustration and distraction people become unmotivated to work in places they don't really want to be which lowers their productivity massively and when something like this is happening with so many people the overall productivity drops.
Another factor toward lower productivity is work hours, again when people see so much happening in the world and are connected to so many other people and seeing the fun or fake fun they are having on social media constantly, it's no surprise that people get frustrated at working eight hours or more every day and if you're frustrated you won't be productive. People also have extremely short attention spans, so if you are doing the same task every day it will be extremely hard to consistently concentrate for hours on end.
There are also countries such a Sweden that have tested six hour work days and the individuals involved said that they felt they had a lot more energy at work and could get more done in less time with this added energy, along with them feeling less stressed in and outside of work.
Finding what works for you:
I think humans are made to work as we need something to fill our time and give us purpose or our minds start to deteriorate. If anyone was to have nothing they spend their time doing they would always be looking for something to take up their time but they won't want to work a job they don't enjoy.
There is the factor of it depending from person to person but I think that we are made to work and the hours of work don't particularly matter if you enjoy what your are doing, and that's the most important part finding what you enjoy. From my experience the people I know and have met that are most happy seem to be constantly working and being challenged by their work. Even the example I used of Srila Prabhupada who argues that we work unnecessarily still had written over thirty books and his entire life was essentially work, preaching and attempting to help people.
As I said I think it does depend on the person, I think the age of the person matters but most of all I think it comes down to the hours not meaning a thing when you have passion for what you do and when you find that a lot of the time work won't feel like work. I also think its key for people to not make their work their life because if you base your entire identity around what your job is then that identity will be very shallow and easily torn apart however having pride in what you do is also important.