WORK? Who needs it? Alex Salmond certainly does. The former First Minister is to re-start his career in performance at the Edinburgh Festival - and it’s guaranteed to be funny. All the seatless Mr Salmond has to do is remind us how Scotland’s oil reserves will fuel the new tomorrow. Or how the referendum was a ‘once in a lifetime pledge’.

Yet, that doesn’t matter. What matters is the one-time politico wants to work. He needs to work. However, Australian tennis star Bernard Tomic doesn’t. Perhaps he had been reading Philip Larkin last week prior to his sharp Wimbledon exit. Larkin’s poem Toads opens with ‘Why should I let the toad work squat on my life? Can’t I use my wit as a pitchfork and drive the brute off?’

Tomic pitchforked his way out of Wimbledon, lost a contract with Head tennis racquets in the process and what was left of his reputation. (Aussie journalists have long labelled him Tomic the Tank Engine for lack of on-court effort.) BT claims he wants to lie on a beach sipping champagne. And with $5m in career winnings the 24 year-old can afford to.

But can he?

What this self-absorbed, six feet-five inches of ingratitude is missing out on is a life, a sense of purpose. He and the likes of Daniel Day Lewis, who announced intent to walk away from acting, are walking away from the appreciation of what their work can give.

To use a slightly more absurd example, Mrs Brown star Rory Cowan has declared his acting days are over. Act? Had the one-time PR man who slid into Brendan O’Caroll’s slipstream ever begun? He should be thanking his God for the day he met his Mammy.

Now, you don’t expect the likes of Tomic or Cowan to consider the existentialist argument, that if we sit on a beach chair and sip cuba libres all day that is what we are. They won’t appreciate work gives us character, a sense of purpose, it allows us to shape and control our personality, to test ourselves, to know our limits.

Or that through work we keep learning. Even feature writers. Last week, for example, an interview with an actress ran into stoney ground when asked – hypothetically – if she could cope with infidelity. The wasn’t coming out of the blue – her TV soap character was running that minefield – and it’s a standard for interviewers to ask of life parallels. But when she stuttered and froze for the longest time it became obvious the question hit too close to home. And so you learn from that, to do more research, or pick up cues.

Yes, it’s right to kick against work at times when it becomes prescribed. Andre Agassi had his moment of rebellion against tennis – (like Tomic he had been engineered by his father) but came back and played on until he was 36. The Williams sisters too were hothoused, but still show no signs of walking away. Andy Murray will probably shuffle of the tennis coil in the next two years all stiff and sore but Federer, at 35, still has the hunger.

What was inspiring this week was to see Wayne Rooney sign for Everton. Aged 32 and worth over £100m he could be making sandcastles and licking 99s all day for ever. But no. He’s kicking against the final whistle.

Lesley Garrett is still determined to sing for her supper. Thanks to HRT, the 62 year-old opera star, says she can still hit the high notes for years to come.

Outside of sport, comic legend Stanley Baxter worked until he was 90 last year. Johnny Beattie, also 90, only recently departed BBC soap River City. They just loved the work.

This is not an argument however for working beyond the limits of endurance. This is not a Goodbye Mr Chips endorsement for working ‘till the coffin maker screws on the brass hinges. If you’re digging holes in a road and your back ceases to function it’s entirely right to look for a life less taxing (providing government pensions etc allow for choice.)

But the likes of Tomic (and feature writers) get to invent and create and test themselves. They’re not riding a bike with a Deliveroo box tied to their back while tied to a zero hours contract.

That’s why it’s galling to hear those in the land of work privilege spout ingratitude. Prince Harry declared recently the young Royals didn’t fancy the job of Kinging and Queening any longer. Then he came to his senses, realising the chances of a balding, ginger who had been kept back at school landing a stunning model girlfriend may be rather less likely if he gave up the Royaling.

What the Tomic’s out there need to do is finish Larkin’s Toad. At the end of his poem he wrote; ‘For something sufficiently toad-like Squats in me, too; Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck, And cold as snow. And will never allow me to blarney My way of getting The fame and the girl and the money All at one sitting.

He knew the holiday had to be earned. If life becomes a permanent holiday how can one take a holiday from the holiday?

Alex Salmond knows this. And when I see Tomic on the beach I’m going to tell him this too.