Why put in effort that has no tangible reward?

The vast majority of us have an employer and we often think "if there is no reason to, I won't spend more time than I'm required to work". This is of course assuming you are a salaried employee.

Yet there is a large group of people who work 50 hours a week and donate 10 hours of their life to working above and beyond their pay. Why?

I understand that work is the nature of a human, and it's how we distract ourselves from our own egos, but damn! At some point you would think that we have better things to do than work for a company that doesn't pay us OT compensation, a fair bonus or give us enough rewarding work to feel accomplished.

Why do you put in the extra hours that you do, if you do?

My only answer to that question is that I keep searching for more skills to develop and I'll tackle certain tasks to stay sharp on my skills. Ultimately to take my skill set elsewhere. The unfortunate side of this is that my employer thinks I'm a bandit that refuses to work. The irony is that I'm only this way because being Gung ho got me no where.

That's what it's about at the end of the day... to find ways to feel rewarded for your own actions. So why do you work those extra hours?

Photo of the day:

I was working late into the night and arrived at the lobby of a project building, waiting for the contractor. The space inside has a large atrium that is nearly 400 feet. During the day time, the atrium fills with light and gives the lobby and open feel. At night however, it's a bit of a dungeon.