Work as Path

The other night I found myself talking with a couple of colleagues about a topic that catches my attention a lot lately: how we deal with failure. We were gathered around a tiny table at a local [...]

Like so many of you, I often work in organizations that are in a state of change and have been for some time. This state of constant change can be exhausting or exhilarating, but it is often [...]

I have an interest in the sociology of work. I’ve had this interest all my life–well, at least since I was eight, but more about that later. Because of my obsession–and, yes, it [...]

Epilogue I tend not to spend much time on problems I’m not interested in solving, and I have now spent many years with the problem of work. Because I find self-responsibility a most [...]

Personal Sovereignty One of the most common mistakes we make when we enter an organization as a worker is that we give up our autonomy, or as Polly Young-Eisendrath describes it, personal [...]

Taking Responsibility, Assuming Authority The many theorists on work, its place in our lives, and impact on our well-being are eager to show us the external culprit in our discomfort: the Great [...]

Work at Its Worst Recently, I was watching a pastiche of Stallone films. In one scene he is being broken down through a classic method for degrading the personality and resistance of prisoners: [...]

Vision and Perspective Many of us say we go to work because “we owe, we owe,” but little is said in consideration of what was once a very popular notion, so popular that it was taken [...]

A Case in Point Work is essential, not only to keep the wolf from the door, but also because it is at the very heart of what it means to be a member of society, a contributor to your community. [...]