I WORK THEREFORE I AM

摘要

"What do you do?"It's simultaneously the most common and least elegant way to begin a conversation with a stranger. But it sure gets to the rub. Our work permeates our sense of self. Often that begins with our names: if youarean English Smith, a German Schmidt or an Italian Ferraro, you are just one of many with a brand identity determined by the employment your ancestors took. In the rich countries of the world, where switching jobs is often routine and opportunities for self-expression and development outside of work are greater than ever before, you might expect this identification with work to be diminishing. Not so. In a 2014 Gallup survey, 55 per cent of US workers said they got a sense of identity from their job, a figure that rises to 70 per cent for college graduates. In an increasingly automated world where the nature of work is in flux, that could present a problem. But it is also an opportunity: start to unpick the reasons why what we do means so much to us, and the effects it has on us, and we can begin to make work work better for all of us.