What role does work have to play in our lives?
Whether corporate or entrepreneurial, individual or collective, paid or unpaid, our work defines us.
Too often, we make choices about work based on unchallenged assumptions. It’s easier to turn on autopilot and follow the pre-determined script: go to a good school, get a respectable job, be happy.
Until one day you find yourself questioning your decisions. Did I choose this? Is this what I want to spend my life doing? Do I believe in the work I’m doing? Do I enjoy it? Does my work bring me a sense of purpose, fulfilment, belonging? Do I need it to?
We followed that script to the letter and started our careers together: same place, same company.
Five years later, Tom left his high-flying career assessing and examining the choices of top executives to turn that examination on himself. Removed from corporate and commercial incentives, Tom explores the nature of work in different settings to discover what constitutes meaningful effort and what leaves us feeling empty.
David chose to stay on his trajectory, seeking to prove fulfilment and happiness are not incompatible with a successful career. Both in his job as consultant and outside it, David develops strategies for working better, balancing performance and purpose to find peace while excelling professionally.
Our paths diverged; the questions about work remained.
re:work is an intention to open this conversation to the world. Reflecting on work’s role in our lives, reconsidering how we work, and reaffirming why we work.
What you can expect from us: one essay every two weeks, alternating between the two of us. There are no simple answers, and we believe the truth is uncovered through tension, so you can expect other eclectic and varied voices to join in over time.
Together, we’ll explore the deep questions about work openly: what work is, why we work, how we work, and how technology might change that. We doubt we’ll find all the answers, but we know this project will help us find more conviction in where and how we choose to work. We hope it does the same for you.
Tom & David