Can Work Be Fun?
To many people, work is a four-letter word that has numerous negative meanings. Work is bad. Work cannot be fun. Work should not be fun. Work is work.
What can we do to cast off or at least balance these negative beliefs with some positive thoughts about work? How can we begin to think of work in a different way? One way is to use the new rules of work to our advantage. For example, jobs are less prescribed than they have been in the past, offering individuals the freedom to shape their work. Rather than fitting into “an occupation” or “a job”, we often have the opportunity to have some say in the design of the work we do.
Think of the last time that you applied for a “job”. Were you given a job description? At the interview were you told that it was difficult to spell out the requirements of the job in the job description because everything was changing so quickly, that by the time the job description had been approved, it was somewhat outdated? Or maybe you were hired to do “a job” and the first responsibility was to figure out what needed to get done.
So instead of complaining about the hiring manager, who may seem clueless about the particulars of “a job”, why not view this as an invitation to design work that works for you?