Work vs Grind

To some, work is a dirty word.

Connotations of the word 'work' bring with it a lot of negative associations. Stress, politics, mind games, drudgery - and that's just the things that come with work, after all of that there's still the tasks and responsibilities you are employed to complete and manage.

Is this work to you?

Work comes in many forms, be it manual labour or an office job, the general feeling is that work is what you have to put up with in order to make money to survive. To some extend this will always be the case but this blog looks into the differences between turning up for work and checking the boxes in order to collect a payslip, or whether you are able to alter your working habits, views and understandings to make that word a little less dirty - some might even say enjoyable.

Do you Grind or do you Work?

First we must define the two terms in order to distinguish between them. As a background to the term 'grinding' it is a recent term and comes from online gaming, I use the term as it accurately describes what work has become for some people. First lets address the definition of 'grinding' as this is the premise of this blog.

Grinding

Completing tasks with no emotion or feeling with regards to the task, you are simply completing it because you want the reward at the end.

Does the act of grinding seem familiar to you? Do you engage with work or just complete the tasks because you have to?

Work on the other hand is a term with many different definitions, but rather than use an already existing definition of the term, I'm going to create my own definition as work is what you make it.

Work

The term 'work' means engaging with the tasks that require completing, working to your strengths and innovating to the best of your abilities.

The results of this new definition of work mean better quality work, happier workers and more innovation and creation. Sounds good doesn't it? As with all things, it if sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The catch is there's a lot of effort to consciously change how we see work, the actions that we perform and the language and contexts in which its used.

Join me as I breakdown these definitions and piece them back together, one blog post at a time, to help us all get more out of work and hopefully enjoy it too.