Work ethic is one of those things that many of us strive for and that employers look for. No one wants to have employees who work for them and don't try to do anything at all- who need constant direction and need to be reminded of certain things. Similarly, work ethic is not necessarily something that you can teach someone how to do or how to value. Rather, work ethic must come from that particular person.

If you have ever seen the movie, Office Space, then you can see how the director has taken a humorous approach to work ethic in Peter's character. However, the underlying issue is actually important in today's society: most people hate their jobs. Unfortunately, there are only a small fraction of us out there who are lucky enough to pursue interests that we are genuinely passionate about, but the thing that motivates most people is money. I have known plenty of people who absolutely loathe their jobs but stick it out because it “pays well”. There are many other motivating factors with work, but again- most of it boils down to money. Another example of how money plays a role in job selection is the fact that most college kids who have just graduated have a ton of debt looming over their heads. From credit card bills to student loans, things can get out of hand pretty quickly.

Many business managers and other employers will use money as a motivating factor in order to help give their employees the extra “push” that they need in order to do a better job while at work. This plays into an employee's work ethic in a big way because suddenly there is an incentive there where there was none before. If you told someone that you would pay them significantly more money to do a better or more thorough job with something, how do you think they would feel? Do you think that they might actually work harder? The general consensus seems to be a resounding “yes”.

Earlier I mentioned that work ethic seems to stem from the person him or herself. What I failed to mention is that there are certain motivating factors that can help to draw out good work ethic in people. Money is one these factors that we briefly discussed. Another one has to do with stroking someone's ego. For some people, money isn't good enough; what they really want is to be respected and appreciated. For some people, it is about the kind and the quality of the relationship that he or she has with their supervisor. For example, an employee who has earned the respect and trust of his or her employer is typically bound to do a better job on his or her work because there is an expectation of greatness there. The employer respects the employee's work efforts and compliments him or her frequently enough that they do a “great job” without seeming false or superficial which then causes the employee to feel better about their own self worth, thereby putting more effort into the quality of the work that they complete.