The term work refers to a wide range of activities that may be carried out in exchange for monetary or other forms of compensation. It encompasses everything from gathering natural resources in hunter-gatherer societies to operating complex technological machines in industrialized economies. In addition to being a necessary element of human life, work can be an important source of satisfaction and purpose for individuals.
Many people’s identities and self-worth rely on the success of their work, but too much dependency on work can be harmful to an individual’s health. The opposite of this is having a balanced relationship with work that allows people to have meaningful engagement and fulfillment in their jobs or careers while still finding a sense of self-worth in other areas of their lives.
As companies and workers rethink the future of work, they must address the question of what kind of value is created in their daily operations. Simply reskilling people to complete different types of routine tasks or using technology to replace them does not fundamentally change the nature of work or capture its full potential for employees and customers.
Redefining work is about reimagining the future of work, and it starts with cultivating and unleashing passion. Employees who are passionate about their work will take greater ownership of the day-to-day and seek out unseen problems and opportunities in the pursuit of meaningful impact that matters to them. This will enable them to deliver more and better value—for their employers, customers, and society.
In physics, work is defined as the transfer of energy from one object to another by the application of force along a displacement. The SI unit of work is the joule, the same as for energy. In this definition, work is a scalar quantity that has magnitude but no direction. The more the force is aligned with the direction of motion, the more work is done on the object.
Moreover, the amount of work required to move an object depends on its mass, acceleration and speed, as well as the length of time it is being moved and the distance it travels. The simplest example is the centripetal force exerted on a ball in uniform circular sideways motion that confines it to the center of the circle. This type of force does zero work on the ball because it is perpendicular to the velocity vector.
Across cultures and throughout history, work has been an important aspect of human social life. The concept of work is linked to other aspects of human culture such as class, status, tradition, and religion. Some cultures place more emphasis on certain types of work such as manual labor, intellectual activity, or service to others while others focus on formalized occupations that carry specialized job titles and provide people with a career. Regardless of the nature and importance of work, most people would agree that it is essential for human survival.
