Over and over in study after study two important factors emerge for both sucessfull learning in school and productive work in the office:

a) You need to be in a setting where you feel appreciated and actually like and are liked by the people you work with

b) You need to be self-determined with respect to what you work on.

Here is another nice blog post that illustrates how important these two factors are.

http://home.foerster-kreuz.com/2010/03/statement-warum-sie-am-wochenende.html