#1
#WorkNarratives #ScrollDownHistoryLane
"After the stimulus checks, no one wants to work anymore."
We highly recommend clicking on the image (or right here) for the full thread.
Paul Fairie, a Canadian academic, stacked a sequence of 14 press clippings that appeared between now in 2022 and the year 1894 (!), all of which cite some form of business owner lamenting that, "Nobody Wants to Work Anymore". It makes for such a fun, fascinating scroll back in time.
But it's also a rare and useful dose of historical perspective, and a reminder of the need to at least question the dominant work narratives; in this case, whether the challenge of finding people to work is really that new.
#2
#WorkNarratives #Vocabulary
Speaking of narratives, this article from the Wall Street Journal introduces "quiet quitting" -- the practice, popularized on TikTok, of staying on the company payroll, but doing less work on the job.
But really, folks, is the phenomenon of people staying in a job and doing the bare minimum to bring home a pay check really that recent? We reckon TikTok is making it more out-in-the-open than it's ever been; maybe more acceptable to talk about, even. But shirking work? That's been a thing for about as long as work has been around.
#3
#GreatTraits #EnthusiasmFTW
We're such suckers for a quote that manages to say so much, using such concise language.
Kevin Kelly is the founder of Wired Magazine, coiner of the phrase "1,000 true fans", and a "futurist" with a decidedly optimistic view of technology, and life more generally.
He happens to frame this in terms of IQ, but for us, his quote just makes explicit what we sort of know intuitively: that it's hard to overestimate the impact -- and often, the joy -- we experience when we get to work with positive, enthusiastic people. 🙌🏻
Thanks for reading.