Work is the new Job

It was 1996 when I started to feel dissatisfied with the irrationality of the workday.
I felt it was silly to clock in and out at set times every day, whether there was work that warranted it or not—whether there was work that could be done during the agreed-upon times of "work" or not.
some things could better be done outside the 9 to 5 window. some things could only be done outside that window.
and yet we slavishly clocked in and out.

I began thinking about the divine order of work as told in the creation story of Genesis: "six days shall you work." (and not necessarily in an air-conditioned box made by human hands.)
taking a "day" to mean twelve hours (because before the invention of the electric light, you really could work only about twelve hours a day—and less in winter), this translates to a 72-hour work week.
into this window I include all manner of work, as Charles Handy categorises, "wage work, fee work, gift work, study work, homework."
and all this work should be done when they're relevant, at the best times to do them.

people looked at me like I was strange.
some said I was lazy, reluctant to "go to the office".
(how many lazy folks do you know, gun for a 72-hour work week?)

of course, I in no way think 72 hours a week at the office is ideal.
72 hours of productive work wherever you are, however, is a different deal...

anyhow, what with "knowledge work" and "outsourcing" and "lifehacks" and "lifestyle design" (and "Getting Things Done") coming not just into vogue but into the public consciousness, the things I used to rant about are gradually no longer strange and fringe but becoming the new work.
so I'm less of a rebel as the days go by.
and more of a bandwagon rider.

sigh.

ah, well.
the important thing is that humanity evolve.
after all, work is what you do with your waking hours.

to get up to speed, check out The 4-Hour Workweek and Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.
and see these blog posts by Tim Ferriss, on the Results-Only Work Environment.

also read what once upon a time helped form my thoughts on the matter of work unbound by time and place: JobShift; You, Inc. and The Age of Unreason.
(there was also an early book on Telecommuting that I used.)

people like Michael Moore may rant and rail about downsizing, but what's the solution in the face of unavoidable global competition?

have you heard the saying, "the job is dead; long live the work"?
how can a person who has been schooled from preschool to postgraduate studies in becoming a mindless (or in the case of knowledge work, mindful) drone in the organisational machine understand that saying and profit by it?

the job is as dead today as the floppy disk was dead in 1998.
meaning to say that it was not dead at all, but dying.
to the masses it seemed alive and well.
but visionaries like Steve Jobs (hate him or love him) saw it as it really was: obsolete and steadily disappearing.

leave the complaining to someone else.
my friend, how are you going to cope with a steadily disappearing job market?
(Jack Welch said, "we didn't fire people; we fired positions.")
what will you do if your job becomes redundant? if your job is manufractured?

this exercise might help:
"what is my job?
what is my work?
what is the difference?"


the floppy disk did eventually die (if you don't count those in museums and geeks' basements).
but portable storage did not die. quite the opposite—it boomed.

can you see?