This paper starts from the premise that economics has offered a one‐sided conception of work. Standard economic theory, specifically, has defined work as a means to income and consumption; it has failed to grasp the importance of work as an end in its own right. The aim of the paper is to develop an alternative conception of work that captures the formative impacts of work on the well‐being of workers. The paper firstly outlines and criticises the different definitions of the disutility of work found in economics. It then offers a critical assessment of happiness research on work. The idea that the effects of work on worker well‐being can be captured by job satisfaction data and that the importance of work can be reduced to a subjective feeling in the heads of individual workers – two key aspects of happiness research – are challenged. The final part of the paper develops novel ideas about how the economics of work should progress in the future. The section proposes a needs‐based conception of work and then uses this conception to make the case for collective intervention aimed at enhancing the quality of work life.