Gwyneth Paltrow x Bruce Feiler: Are You in a Workquake?
May 30, 2023
50:44
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Quick takeaways
Our traditional notions of career and job are outdated, and individuals now have multiple roles and jobs.
Personal stories and narratives are essential in creating meaningful work experiences.
Deep dives
Work Quakes: Navigating Transitions in the Modern Career Landscape
Bruce Filer, author of 'The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World,' shares insights on work transitions, or 'work quakes,' and the need to rethink the linear path to success. Filer argues that the traditional notions of career, path, and job are outdated, and that individuals now have multiple roles and jobs. He emphasizes the importance of finding work with meaning and purpose, and highlights the opportunity to navigate transitions and make deliberate choices about what brings fulfillment. Filer also discusses the power of personal stories and how individuals can create their own meanings in jobs that may not inherently have meaning.
The Influence of Childhood Experiences and Role Models on Work Choices
Filer explores how childhood experiences and role models shape individuals' work choices. He encourages identifying the upsides and downsides of work learned from parents and role models, and looks for patterns and values within those experiences. Filer emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's own values and desired sense of fulfillment, rather than adhering to societal and linear career expectations. He discusses the power of personal storytelling and using childhood influences to uncover one's own meaning and purpose in work.
Embracing Nonlinear Lives and Multiple Jobs in the Modern Era
Filer challenges the notion of a linear career path and emphasizes the prevalence of multiple jobs and various roles in today's work landscape. He introduces the concept of five jobs individuals now have: a main job, care job, side job, hope job, and ghost job. Filer discusses the need to allocate meaning across these different jobs, making deliberate choices based on personal values and desires. He encourages individuals to find fulfillment by crafting their own stories and connecting past, present, and future in their work journeys.
Finding Meaning and Purpose in Work
Filer delves into the importance of finding work with meaning and purpose. He asserts that personal stories and narratives are essential in creating meaningful work experiences. Filer encourages individuals to ask themselves essential questions about their values, childhood influences, and desired purpose in order to uncover what brings them true meaning in their work. He emphasizes the power of storytelling and the agency individuals have in shaping their own work narratives.
In Bruce Feiler's latest book, The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World, he explores how people navigate through "workquakes," or work transitions, drawing from hundreds of real life stories from people across the country. He joins GP to talk about why we've been inculcated with the idea that there is a linear path to success and why it's time to rethink what it means to have a career. He shares his insights on how people can move through periods of change with purpose and clarity, and the questions to ask to find the work we want.