Introduction

If 2020 was the year people asked, “Can we really work from home?” and 2021 was the year people asked, “How might we return to the office?”, then 2022 was the year people started asking, “Why do we put up with this crap?”

If like me, you’ve been working from home for many years, maybe this shift in discourse felt irrelevant. You’ve got your own gig; you make your own rules; you create your own working conditions. But I believe this larger shift transcends the divisions created by our tax codes—contractor, employee, sole proprietor, member of an LLC, and even employer. Whether we have obligations to an employer or rely on some of the world’s largest corporations for “free access” to the software products they create to harvest our personal data, we are workers.

The way we think about work and workers is changing because work changed and is still changing.

In this quick bonus episode, I lay out a vision for work in 2023 and beyond that defies the structures and assumptions that keep us focused on productivity and efficiency, despite our best efforts to prioritize creativity, collaboration, and care.

Look for the written version of this episode at explorewhatworks.com

Ready to transform the way you work? I have two recommendations:

The first is my new book, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting. It’s a fundamental rethinking of why we choose our goals, why we’re always striving for more, and how we might create work and life structures that don’t revolve around achievement or the relentless pursuit of growth.

You can grab your copy—or gift one to a friend—at explorewhatworks.com/book.

And the second is a brand-new workshop that I’m teaching January 10, 17, and 24th called Work In Practice. This 3-part workshop builds on the themes of the book and applies them to our daily work. On January 10, we’ll tackle job crafting so we can do better work with less stress. On January 17, we’ll embrace our limits so we can make reasonable and sustainable plans for the year ahead. And on January 24, we’ll creates systems of care for ourselves and others to increase our access to resources, as well as increase what we have available to give and share.

To find out more, go to workinpractice.life.