What It's About

I have not owned a car now for four years. Living and working in Philadelphia allows me this luxury. When I need a car I rent one. Sometimes this experience causes me trepidation. Getting behind the wheel of a strange car once every blue moon is cause for me to take my time adjusting to my new surroundings. However before too much time passes, I am driving this new car as if I had owned it for years. The experience is a bipolar mix of careful analyzing and basic instinct.

I have similar feelings when I am writing this blog. I am a careful writer most of the time. I attempt to ensure every post is poignant and worthy of the reader's time. When I am overly careful, I can spend weeks on a post, rewriting, revising and mulling over one sentence that just does not work. Yet on the other hand, sometimes when I am writing, the words flow faster than I can type, as if I was just a vessel for the words and it is pure instinct.

I would prefer blog writing to be similar to renting a car...a few required moments of diligent analyzation and then all wheels are in motion.

However when pure instinct is riding dominantly, it is sometimes difficult to explain what the meaning is or where it originated.

Take for example, the title and the byline for this blog. I have been asked on numerous occasions how I came up with the title. My explanations though have been half-hearted attempts. After I explain, I usually do not remember what I have said and am unsure if I am being consistent.

This is not to be mistaken for a lie. Because the truth is, there was no grand scheme. I wanted to write a blog on workplace issues and the title just popped into my head one day. I instinctively knew it would work. To everyone who's heard an explanation come out of my mouth, it's important to understand I was not lying. I was not sure how to explain my instinct.

The byline on the other hand, has never raised a curious eyebrow. Yet it is also an example of instinct. When setting up the blog on Blogger, it prompts you to fill in this field. "It's About The Work" is what I wrote and I am glad I did. This blog is written from a human resources point-of-view. However, it is not really a human resources blog. It is also not a jobs blog or a workplace issue blog. This blog is about work. Fortunately for me, it is easy to find work in almost everything we do.

Work is not just about jobs and workplaces. Work is an essential part of who we are as humans. Work distinguishes us from other animals in the way Karl Marx stated in The German Ideology that, "man makes his life activity (work) itself an object of his will and consciousness." In the same vein, this consciousness is every bit of an instinct for us.

Therein lies why we complain about work yet still keep doing it everyday. It does not matter if it is driving a car, writing a blog, building a model train, sewing a dress, creating computer networks, decorating homes or teaching children. No matter how hard it is, we have to do it. Even though we may not understand why we do it, it feels like our prime directive.

Simply, it is what it's about.