Work Life

Our Life at Work Stripped Bare

Most of us spend a healthy slice of our lives working. We spend additional time thinking about work, but these thoughts are generally focused on the job at hand. We think through an upcoming meeting, worry about a deadline or scheme about our next job change. Much less often do we think about the wider connection of our work to our community. Rarely, if ever, do we think about the extent to which others’ work impacts on, and is essential to, our way of life. In ‘The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work’, Alain de Botton does this for us in a thoughtful and entertaining way.

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Tired of Your Job? Start Dreaming of a New Career

Do you hate your job? I did, fifteen years ago. Stressed, poorly rewarded and unappreciated, I found that simply packing my bag and leaving for work gave me a headache. It wasn’t just the company I was working for that was the problem. I was simply in the wrong career. Trouble was, at the time, I really had no idea what else I might do. It was very difficult to think outside the narrow bounds of the career I had more or less fallen in to.

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Simplicity’s Magic Word

The red rash around the top of the collar gives it away. The urgent tone of his voice only confirms Kate’s hunch. Mark is angry. ‘You said “no” to that urgent order I sent through,’ says Mark sharply. ‘That’s right. We can’t do it in the time you want.’ Kate surprises herself with her outward [...]

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When Goal Setting Lets You Down

It was a dubious form of punishment. The small cafe was subtly lit, its distressed brick walls and retro furnishings creating an unhurried mood. It was quiet too, the background music contemporary but gentle. The place seemed a world away from the glaring sun and unbridled cacophony of the holiday resort’s teeming main street just [...]

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New Research on Happiness at Work (sort of)

One of the benefits of the mobile phone culture is the ease with which one can do informal social research. It may not be kosher to eavesdrop on one half of a private conversation, but I figure that people who choose to loudly air their wares are willing subjects. This year I’ve noticed a disturbing [...]

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Words of Simple Wisdom from the Attic

I just stumbled across a 10 year old interview with the late Ken Iverson, long time CEO of U.S. steel manufacturer Nucor. His philosophy on management centres on keeping it simple. And it helped grow Nucor into a leader in its industry, and an outperformer of the market, from near bankruptcy in the 1960s. (Nucor [...]