I had originally planned to write a piece about the absolute debacle at Marconi for this week's view but I was completely sidetracked by the very interesting KPMG survey entitled Career Change: An insight into what motivates the Irish workforce. And so I binned the Marconi piece in favour of looking at what does motivate the Irish workforce instead (thus showing potential employers that I am flexible, can adapt to changing circumstances and act on my own initiative).

What first caught my attention was the question that KPMG says was the "fun" part of the survey and that asked candidates to say what their dream job might be. (The survey was conducted in May 2001 and there were 97 respondents, of whom 60 per cent were male and 40 per cent female.) Anyway, the dream jobs were sporting stardom or the pursuit of artistic dreams. The sports stars wanted to be footballers, golfers or Formula 1 racers, while the artistic types wanted to be writers, actors or artists. A staggering 86 per cent of people were interested in a complete change of career.

Obviously I read all this with my own fairly chequered career path in mind.

After all, if I'm asked one question more than any other, it's why on earth someone in financial services chucked it all in to write books. Looking at the KPMG survey (of which, in fact, more than a quarter of those surveyed worked in financial services), it seems like I was only one of a wave of people dying to trade in their calculators for creativity. I know that everyone believes they have a book in them, but clearly there are a lot more people out there that would be only too keen to let it out!

I suppose we all like to think that we're unique, but, rather frighteningly, I used to dream about the sporting stardom thing too. Not, obviously, football (women footballers get paid a pittance if at all and don't even get David Ginolatype contracts from L'Oreal). Not golf either (I argue too much about those ridiculous Captain and Lady Captain divisions, the whole membership structure and the absurdity of some of the conventions - no game is worth stepping back from your principles for). And not even Formula 1 (despite actually enjoying driving fast cars and once spending a brilliant day at Mondello). I wanted to be a tennis star, thus combining my love of thumping something with the glamour - well, I was younger and more naive - of worldwide travel. And yes, everyone in the survey still wants to travel too.

So basically, most of us think the same way. We do our jobs, we possibly like them, but we really want to do something else. And, interestingly from an employer's point of view, money is not our motivating factor.

It's easy, of course, to say that money isn't the motivating factor when you're completing a survey. Let's face it, most people probably lie their socks off when completing surveys, if only because there are questions asked that they feel they can't possibly answer truthfully without appearing insanely weird. But for many of us it's perfectly true. In helping to conduct interviews recently for a local organisation I was struck by the number of people who were perfectly happy with the (relatively) modest salary offered, on the basis that they thought the job was interesting and that they wouldn't have to commute. Money was certainly not my motivating factor in leaving my job although, fortunately, the novel writing has turned out well for me, thus allowing me to change my lifestyle while still paying the bills. In fact, according to the survey, only 12 per cent felt that the remuneration package was the most important consideration. Most people were far more interested in personal and career development - even allowing for lying your socks off it's an interesting percentage.

Employers may scoff at this all they like and say that it definitely comes down to money in the end, but they're fooling themselves. Employees spend at least seven hours a day in the office (many a lot more than that); if you allow another six or seven hours for sleep that means that more of your waking time during the week is spent working than at home.

The least you could hope for during that time is for it to be, if not always enjoyable, at least as stimulating and interesting as possible. But clearly lots of people don't feel that way about their jobs, despite the ever-snazzier ads that companies and recruitment agencies are coming up with to entice in the CVs.

The people in the survey weren't all bored twentysomethings on their first job. More than half of them had been in the workforce for over six years.

And all that time they've been dreaming about being Roy Keane or Tiger Woods or Michael Schumacher instead of operations manager, chief accountant or sales director.

Mind you, for most of them, the sporting stardom dream would enhance their remuneration far more effectively than a move from one international bank to another. Despite the racy salaries that middle management can obtain, they're clearly not in the league of any of our sporting heroes. But how many chief accountants are really Formula 1 material?

I suppose it's the same with writers, artists and actors. The top people will earn pots of money and there's a layer who will do okay but not spectacularly well. Still, if money isn't the motivating factor, once you can earn a living you'll be happy to trade in the nine-to-five for something a little more flexible. And I guess that lots of people think they've a better shot at being a writer, artist or actor than becoming another Tiger Woods.

Thing is, most of us will always dream of doing something different. Many of us never get the chance. But we do want to make our jobs an interesting and worthwhile part of our lives and it would be good for employers to remember that. If you're an employer with a high turnover of staff, you might want to ask yourself why. And if you're an employer looking to take on new recruits you should keep those concerns in mind. And there's always John Mayo, Marconi's ex-chief executive designate, who's now looking for a new job.

At this point in his life John might be thinking that his best option is to write the book of his career to date. It won't bring in the revenue that the repriced share options might have, but it'll probably be an interesting experience all the same.