The work is free

Someone asked me recently if I’d ever done any work for free, and if I enjoyed it.

It was hard to restrain the smirk. Here was my response:

Projects that deserve to be done are labors of love, not work.
Doing things with people I like is a pleasure, not work.
Actual performance on the job & completion of the tasks that need to be done, this isn’t work.
All that is free.

What I get paid to do is go to stupid meetings, to be patient with people who don’t know what they’re doing or why but like to feel important, to pretend that unimportant things actually matter, to keep myself from solving for design problems that no one is willing to accept a redesign of, to take blame from people who deserve it and give credit to those who don’t, to put up with things I don’t think any human should ever reasonably have to put up with, and to keep from saying what I really think. I don’t think any of this is actually considered “work” either, though it often takes everything I’ve got.

Creativity just happens, I can’t show up and not bring it.
Love just happens, and lots of things get done through it and because of it.
The work you mean is play to me.

Putting up with a world that doesn’t understand or appreciate this is very, very hard work indeed. I don’t know if anyone knows that’s what I am paid for, and I’m quite sure that 99% of this is work that no one will ever pay me for.

Do I work for free? Yes, I do.
Do I enjoy it? No, I do not.
But thanks for asking.