Reframing your Ideas of Work

Last year I was talking to Dad about the changes around us and he came up with the notion of defining a new word for work, which would help change how people perceive the way they use their strength to earn money and build up a life for themselves and their families.

I loved his idea, though normally it is one I would expect from a branding specialist. If something doesn’t work, then rename it and give it new significance! But Dad is right. Since the mid 1990s there has been a radical change in the organisation, meaning and language of work. He has lived through this. Workplaces have been broken down into projects, most of them outsourced, with staff working on short-term contracts. From the days when most of us had a lifelong job with an increasing salary and holidays there has been a shift to a more conceptual method of working, with people always visiting different places and social nets with less security and less consistency but more opportunity. These changes, taking place as knowledge-intensive economies develop, can mean a lot of opportunities if the happiness you want from life is not only dependent on job title, status and description.

Dad’s main point was that the term ‘work’ is perceived negatively. Nowadays people get upset when they talk about their work, although they should be as proud of it as they are of their vocation. Instead people describe it with ambivalence. They are not really sure what to think about work: they talk about long hours, pressure, stress, dependence, fragility and insecurity. I personally know only a few people who really live their work as a vocation and talk about its productivity, fun, growth, meaning and vision.

After talking it through, we thought that the new word for work should express ‘diversity, excitement, opportunity, personal growth and satisfaction’. Motivation, efficiency and productivity would be the logical consequence, but not ends in themselves.

If you have any ideas for how to substitute the word work and would like to share it then please email your suggestion to newwordforwork@cpb-lab.com. Thank you.