Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The definition of work is changing with more people forming distant, loosely connected teams. This requires people who can understand not only the words but the intent of a writer and a speaker.

Here is a new definition of work:

Work is something we do, not somewhere we go.

For years, the phrase, “I’m going to work.” has been the norm. Everyone knew what you meant. You were leaving home and going to some other place before you worked. We are now moving into the “agent economy” where (almost) everyone is a freelance, one-person business. Each person is contacted by another distant person to work a while on a project (my very short description). The colleagues are distant and loosely connected.

One characteristic of this new work is that people do not meet in the same physical space. Sometimes they speak face-t0-face via some type of video chat or teleconference. They, however, are not in the same room where they can feel one another breathe.

Much of the communication in the new work is written. Much of the communication in the new work is spoken. Body language disappears. How someone walks into the room disappears. Many other unspoken, unwritten forms of communication disappear.

Hence, the new work requires

1. people who can write and speak clearly.
2. people who can understand the written and spoken word absent of all other types of communication

We are well aware of the first qualification for people in the new work. The second qualification, while just as important, is rarely mentioned. It is not easy to find people who fit the first qualification. I contend that it is more difficult to find people who meet the second qualification. How do you ask for that? Do you ask, “Can you read? Can you hear?” Few people will answer, “no” to either question, but candidly, few people can meet those qualifications.