I appreciate the following quotes related to work:
“By relieving tensions, clarifying feelings, giving insight, helping attain success, and developing a feeling of competence in our important area of adjustment, the vocational, it is possible to release the individuals ability to cope more adequately with the other aspects of living, thus bringing improvement in general adjustment.” (Super, 1957)
“Work shores up our identity; it achieves both the private and social life: it defines the self to itself and to the world. And, lacking a work place to go to, a circle of colleagues to connect with, a task to confirm our competence, a salary that puts value on that competence, a job description that serves as a shorthand there is no way of telling who we are.” (Viorst, 1986)