Illustrated Blog

Think your fancy modern job is better than the primitive jobs of our ancestors? Maybe not. It’s unlikely cave dwellers grumbled about the day they endured to put dinner on their stone tables. Anthropologists believe pre-historic humans legitimately enjoyed working. The legacy of these happy laborers appears to survive in our genes. Why else would so many of us hunt deer, catch fish and gather berries for fun? What’s more, our modern view that work is the unpleasantness necessary for survival would confound our forefathers and foremothers. Hunter-gatherer communities didn’t even have a word for “work.” Procuring food and shelter were not distinctly different from playing with the kids or drawing on the cave wall. We upright and suited modern humans, on the other hand, mostly see work as a

Does your job feel bland and purposeless? Do you like your work but still yearn for a more meaningful existence? I suggest messing with your job — just a tad — to ignite it with purpose. You can help homeless families, protect the natural environment, support customers battling illness or otherwise do good from work. A little charitable rebelliousness in the workplace will brighten the world around you, as well as your day. If research is any indication, it might even make you love your job. This practice of making a positive social impact from everyday work is called “job purposing.” Although job purposing is often a sophisticated management practice, it can also be a small act performed by any worker. Here are a few “lite” job purposing practices: 1.   Make

You’re with your spouse at your favorite restaurant after an arduous workday that started pre-sunrise. Understandably, you yawn while your honey shares an eye-opening LinkedIn post. Before you blurt out an apology, something odd happens. Your spouse yawns! They slept in, had a leisurely afternoon and had so much energy five minutes ago that they practically skipped into the cafe. Why the yawn? Is it possible that the love of your life is so dull that they are lulling themselves, and you, to sleep? Don’t panic. Scientists have a different explanation. Your spouse’s physiology is poised to feel your pain or, in this case, fatigue. They yawn because you yawn. Contagious yawning is a primal sign that your honey is designed to empathize with you. Flash forward five minutes. You

It’s probable that right this moment… A valet parking attendant is inspecting tires and, if any are bald, will alert the car’s owner. A fitness-loving construction inspector is writing an internal blog to help her colleagues adopt healthy behaviors. A safety officer at a chemical manufacturing plant is telling workers that the company will donate $10 to the food pantry every day the team has no safety violations. These charitable acts aren’t listed in their job descriptions. These workers are rebels. They are, however, happy and industrious rebels. Research conducted by Yale’s Amy Wrzesniewski and University of Michigan’s Jane Dutton finds that workers who shape their jobs to be more purposeful are more engaged than their docile colleagues. “It’s a way to ‘dig’ my job. People are so grateful…and it

My client, Jane, said “This election has turned me into a pathetic soft sack of emotion. I’m so saddened that I can barely function.” The next day I asked if she felt any better. “Not really. I left work early to get a pedicure. It didn’t help.” It doesn’t take a sociologist to determine that Jane is not alone. Following the US presidential election, much of the world is heartbroken and anxious. If you’re in this tribe of the walking wounded, or feel down for other reasons, I have a suggestion. Skip the pedicure. Instead, spend the pedicure time or money to support whatever societal issue concerns you. If you fear a rollback of hard-fought civil rights, for example, write a tweet encouraging tolerance, order a banner for your storefront

“You can’t help me. I manage mostly wait staff who only work for the paycheck.” Ron, the owner of several restaurants, tells me this upon hearing that I help companies expand the societal impact of jobs, a practice called job purposing. Ron believes some jobs – like nursing – promote societal good, and others – like waiting tables – don’t and can’t. Modern society agrees with him. We treat most low-skilled jobs as if they were inherently and inevitably devoid of societal purpose. Trying to job purpose the waiter position, long labeled as nothing more than a way to pay bills, appears absurd. What’s truly absurd, however, is what Ron and many other managers do: continue to offer unalluring jobs that workers perform listlessly. With a little inventiveness, managers can

“Ouch, my knee!” I whine into the, mercifully, empty bedroom. Two days post-surgery, I’ve awoken from drug-induced slumber to the sight of my bandaged leg atop several pillows. I wonder if the eight screws the surgeon inserted into my shinbone are tap dancing. As fond as I am of this hypothesis, I decide the pain is likely a function of medication wearing off (although, apparently, not its hallucinogenic effects). I fumble around the night table for my work notebook and phone. Nothing on my to-do list seems vital and there are no urgent texts from my assistant. I, therefore, reach for the Percocet and swallow a pill. “Oh no! What have I done? Project CST can’t wait!” I’m suddenly upset that Project CST, which is not even on the to-do

“I was offered a wonderful job promoting ocean restoration!” my beaming Georgetown student, Lisa, tells me. Before I shriek my congratulations, she deflates. “It would be a 30 percent pay cut, so I doubt I can take it.” Lisa was considering a move from a corporate to a nonprofit marketing director position. Why would the nonprofit version of the job pay substantially less than the for-profit version? This question has irked economists for decades. Economic theory states that the market equalizes pay across similar jobs. Yet, nonprofits staff up easily while for-profits have to pay significantly more to do the same. One study found that nonprofit jobs pay, on average, 37 percent less than comparable for-profit jobs. Why are nonprofits blithely exempt from market forces? The troubling reason some jobs pay well