Our planet is not a place fl owing with milk and hon ey Humans have been going to work since time immemorial if for no other reason than to satisfy their need for food and have been doing so to this day The fi rst pre historic jobs were those of hunters and gatherers These activities serving the pure purpose of getting hold of food are com monly deemed to be humanity s oldest traditional economic system Hunters by the way were also the fi rst humans to use tools The oldest hunting weapon found so far a spear is 300 000 years old The body s own reward The realization that work not only satisfi es our need for subsistence but can also make us happy is hundreds of thousands of years old too and can be explained by the fact that even the evolutionary ancestors of humans used to live in social groups Only those who were socially accepted and be longed to a group were able to survive Therefore in the course of evolution the human brain devel oped sensors enabling us to perceive the quality of social relationships plus a network of nerve cells residing in the midbrain that s referred to as our motivation and reward system When a human be ing back than or today experiences social rec ognition and appreciation the system releases a cocktail of happiness composed of ingredients like dopamine an energy drug oxytocin a con fi dence and collaboration messenger substance and internal opioids messenger substances that make us feel good a reward paid out by our brain These fi ndings have led to important conclusions for today s working world says the neurobiolo gist physician and book author Prof Dr med Joa chim Bauer Arbeit warum sie uns glücklich oder krank macht Work Why It Makes Us Happy Or Ill People can only sustainably muster up com mitment and motivation if they experience that what they do is perceived acknowledged and ap preciated This doesn t mean at all that employ ees want to or should be pampered and constantly showered with praise Even criticism can be per ceived as a form of appreciation provided it s justifi ed and not communicated in disparaging ways By the way the necessity of being seen not only applies to the job but also to activities in peo ple s private lives By Volker Paulun Up until and into the 19th century forestry and farming were by far the most important labor and economic sector worldwide Today it accounts for 6 4 in countries like Germany and the United Kingdom for even less than 1 Naturally these mechanisms can also be under mined The ancient Greeks and Romans for exam ple did not value physical labor in any way They only managed to evolve into advanced civilizations because slaves took care of all physically strenu ous activities and thereby kept things running Work and social life in Rome and Athens were by and large separate entities Upward mobility through work This development only began to change in the Mid dle Ages While the underprivileged and unfree ru ral population which accounted for 90 percent of the total population in Europe at the time per ceived its unappreciated labor as a hardship and daily grind craftsmen in the cities developed a rath er self confi dent attitude about their work Work Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom Thomas Carlyle Scottish historian In motion

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