我们的工作是为了什么？出卖自己的劳动力然后获得一份收入，再用收入购买由其他人出卖劳动力所生产出来的商品，从这个角度理解工作只是充当商品交换的媒介，另外如果购买商品出于享受，那我们就无法从工作中获得意义，因为其本身只是为了满足获得收入后的享受。而往往物质层面的，感官上的享受都只会拥有短暂的一瞬快乐，随之而来的是虚无的感觉，而要保持不断的快乐，就要不断的购买，不断的尝鲜，这迫使我们投身于工作中，满足人类增长的欲望，工作在此沦为了工具，失去了其本身的神圣性。
如何真正的沉浸于工作？或许我们可以不把工作当作享乐或者服务于其他目的的工具，工作就是工作本身。
Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by the increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of machinery, etc.
--Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
中文翻译：
由于机器的推广和分工，无产者的劳动已经失去了任何独立的性质，因而对工人也失去了任何吸引力。工人变成了机器的单纯的附属品，要求他做的只是极其简单、极其单调和极容易学会的操作。因此，花在工人身上的费用，几乎只限于维持工人生活和延续工人后代所必需的生活资料。但是，商品的价格，从而劳动的价格，是同它的生产费用相等的。因此，劳动越使人感到厌恶，工资也就越减少。不仅如此，机器越推广，分工越细致，劳动量也就越增加，这或者是由于工作时间的延长，或者是由于在一定时间内所要求的劳动的增加，机器运转的加速，等等。
--摘自共产党宣言（马克思和恩格斯）