Work Centrality

Work centrality is a business concept that refers to how important a person holds his or her work and work life to be by comparison to other things; it is the extent to which a person makes working a job a primary life investment.  The lifestyle of someone who spends more time working than not working (perhaps unless forced to do so by unwanted circumstances) has a high work centrality.  There is nothing wrong with having a high work centrality in itself, but there are other factors that must be considered.  What, then, is the line, if there is one?

On the Christian worldview, regardless of how someone feels about the matter, close friendships and marriages are objectively more valuable than an occupation, however financially profitable or personally fulfilling it may be.  Business objectives and corporate success do not bear God's image, but every person that we have met or will meet does.  There is no inherent obligation to engage in a particular occupation, but there are binding obligations towards other humans.  No amount of personal preference can change this.

Single adults have more freedom to engage in their work without depriving families of their presences.  As long as someone is not neglecting other moral responsibilities, such as family duties and the cultivation of close friendships, the only thing that might make a certain degree of involvement in work morally problematic would be the issue of what that person cares about most in his or her heart.  It is fallacious to assert that there is a line past which all people would be working too many hours; neither reason nor Scripture even suggests that such a line exists.  If a person is fulfilling other objective moral responsibilities, not placing work above a relationship with God, and is not tormenting himself or herself with overworking, then working numerous hours a week is not problematic on any level.

I know that even apart from Christianity I would eagerly sacrifice work hours and the accompanying pay simple to be able to deepen relationships with my handful of friends, relax, and focus on my personal self-education.  I care about all three more than I do about possessing a large amount of surplus money.  But the personalities and personal priorities of others could differ drastically from mine, and that is where moral obligations must be remembered.