What do you do: Exploring the topic of work
Jeremy Hobson: The weak job market that’s likely to be with us for a while is going to impact all kinds of things — what people study in college, where people decide to live, and even the answer to the age-old question: what do you want to be when you grow up?
For author Daniel Pink, the answer — decades ago — started with a book.
Daniel Pink: One afternoon in 1974, I spotted a book my parents had brought home from our local library in central Ohio. It was by a guy with a weird name — Studs Terkel. The title was in boxy black and red letters. Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.
I was 10 years old at the time — and cared about sports and not much else. So I read Terkel’s interview with the baseball player, a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
To my surprise, I ended up staying for the cab driver, the bank teller, the gravedigger, and — yes, I’ll admit it — the prostitute.
Hearing real grown-ups talk about what they did for a living was a revelation. It was far more exotic and exciting than reading about phantom tollbooths or some old lady’s mixed-up files. I even asked my dad if I could see his office.
In many ways, that book began my obsession with work — trying to understand what work is, how it’s organized, and when it can become, as Terkel put it, a source “of daily meaning, as well as daily bread.”
Work, I’ve realized, is an amazing topic to explore — psychology, economics, anthropology, and a few scoops of biology blended into a ginormous, fascinating smoothie. Think about it. Most of us spend over half of our waking hours at work. That makes it a powerful lens for examining who we are and where we’re going.
I left Ohio long ago and now live — and work — in Washington, D.C. This city can be an uptight place. It has a strange social convention. Apparently, you’re not supposed to ask people you’ve just met about their jobs. We’re dying to know, of course. But inquiring is considered intrusive, immodest, a bit uncouth.
I don’t care. Whenever I meet someone new, I always ask the same question — the question Studs Terkel planted in my young mind: So, what do you do?
Hobson: Daniel Pink’s latest book is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Check out some reading suggestions in our summer book series. Got a comment? Write to us.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
