What my Mum's career taught me about why we work — and how we hire

I’ve always been fascinated by people’s relationship with work and what they do.

In my personal life, I have friends and family who work in technology,  sales, media, real estate, education, building and other trades. There are designers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, nurses, teachers and even a Catholic priest. 

Most of the people I’m connected with professionally work in the nonprofit and community sector, so inherently, I spend time with people  who are purpose-led. Being  surrounded by people who genuinely want to do good in the world and make an impact is a privilege I never take for granted. 

I grew up in a working-class family in Brisbane. For my parents and our family, work was a means to an end. Work was something my dad did to provide for our family. When my brother and I were little, not long after Dad got home from his job as a carpenter, Mum would leave the house to work a shift in the restaurant at the hotel up the road from where we lived. She also did house cleaning and ironing for a few extra dollars and no doubt worked other odd jobs I didn’t know about.

When my younger brother started school, Mum returned to work part time. It was 1988, and she landed an admin job with a large accounting firm. Her job title was ‘facsimile operator.’ She worked in the mailroom, sending faxes. She tells the story of walking into the firm’s fancy city offices and deciding she was going to be part of this world. She had never seen or operated a fax machine before, yet she got the job.

The significance of her going after and getting this job is something I didn’t understand at the time but am immensely proud of as an adult.

What I didn’t know at age 9, but came to understand during my teenage years, was that Mum’s motivation to apply for that job wasn’t simply about money. She wanted to do something of value outside the home. She wanted to be challenged and to learn and grow.

Over 30 years, Mum held various roles with that firm. She survived a round of post-merger redundancies, reapplied for her own job and completed tertiary studies to upskill. She became a senior member of the national facilities management team for the firm, with responsibility for four offices and a small team.

When it came time to retire, Dad happily transitioned to casual hours and volunteering, but Mum didn’t want to stop working. She loved her job and the sense of meaning, purpose and belonging she derived from it.

Mum’s relationship with her work and the motivations behind her decisions reflect a natural human desire to be industrious, to have a purpose and feel useful. For my mum, work wasn’t just a job. It was a way to be part of something, to add value and be of service. 

This chapter of Mum’s working life began almost 40 years ago — it’s not lost on me how fortunate she was to build a career (after having kids) which she derived so much meaning from.

For some people, what they do is part of who they are; work is closely intertwined with their identity. For others, it’s simply a job, a way to generate an income and pay the bills. 

Similarly, there are many, many different reasons people look for a new job. I believe most reasons fall into what I like to call the 3 Fs.

Feeling
Anecdotally, I believe this is the most powerful driver. Sentiment – how people feel about their job, leader, team and working environment – is critically important. Feeling valued, respected and cared for is a factor we simply cannot underestimate.

Flexibility
This means different things for different people, but in simple terms, people want the ability to fit work around their life. This might include hybrid, remote, part-time or fractional work options, alongside other flexibility arrangements.

Fair pay
Salary is an important factor, but its priority level for each individual is incredibly nuanced. Salary expectations can vary greatly across people and roles. Complex individual considerations aside, fair pay is a base expectation.

All of this makes sense, no surprises, right? 

The question is, is how we hire optimised to understand and address these motivations?

I believe the answer is no. For the most part, hiring processes are designed to work for organisations, built around roles and to address compliance and minimise risk.

That’s where we get it wrong. We need to put the people we’re trying to attract at the centre — and understand their why.

Every candidate conversation I’ve ever had starts with two simple yet powerful questions:

Why are you looking for a new job?
What are you looking for?

This is about understanding what’s driving someone, how they want to feel, how work fits into their life, and what fair pay looks like. There is no point assessing skills and experience if we don’t have alignment on these things.

Looking for a job is an expression of optimism.  It’s a way of saying “I want something different, something more, or something better.”

We stay in our jobs less than half the time we did a decade ago. Like consumers, employees vote with their feet and we expect work to work for usPutting your audience — the people you’re trying to attract — at the centre of your recruitment approach changes everything.  

This is the core premise of my book Attract: Recruitment Reimagined and what I’m looking forward to sharing through my recruitment mentoring program.

Recruitment sounds simple.

But attracting the right people requires more than process — it requires clarity, communication, and connection.

That’s the work I do with leaders and teams.