The Work in Work Isn’t the Work

Too often the ‘work’ in Work' isn’t the Work.

It’s the politics. The poor communication. The mediocrity. The meaningless meetings. The empty slogans.

The pretending. Everybody pretending.

Acting is hard. Ask any actor.

It’s hard work trying to make sense and coherence out of the mayhem of messages. Day in and day out. It’s dispiriting trying to keep your authentic self breathing as you sink into the quicksand that is workplace nonsense.

Then one day you find yourself on a project with people who are good at what they do. People who are eager to learn from you. People who are generous and honest and straight talking. People who take your work and make it better and therefore you better. They make it all seem effortless. They are not pretending. They are almost oblivious to the nonsense that lies beyond their area of focus. Occasionally they have to down tools and waste time with everybody else in senseless meetings. But then they return to their work and get on with it.

Once you experience those people and that possibility - even if only for an hour or two - you never see work the same way again. Sadly, the majority of workers never experience this. For them, work is work because of the liars and their lying. And the effort of pretending because they think this is what Work is.