In our work lives, we sometimes find ourselves in a kind of wilderness. Perhaps we don’t know why we’re still doing what we’re doing, or we’re just exhausted with it, or more potently – we just can’t care anymore and have no more f***s to give. This can be because of an untenable work situation or culture, a bad boss, an accumulation of compromises we’ve made that topple of their own weight, or a blinding realization that we are really not making a difference. In my recruiting firm, my...

Sorting through my sister’s garage recently, I stumbled across something I recognized immediately – my mother’s leather portfolio full of maps, all still nestled in there. It’s burgundy, with the scrapes and scratches of time, and zippered pockets full of maps – city maps, state maps, national park maps. And inside it still smells like our old house, and her. My mother taught elementary school briefly before she began having children, and I remember her telling me that she recommended to her...

As the last 25 years of my life have been largely focused on people’s relationships with their work, I’ve always held a special place in my heart for Labor Day. It was established in the late 1800s in recognition of the struggles for workers’ rights, and while those legitimate struggles continue into the present day, the growth of labor unions and the middle class in the 20th century allowed many of us the privilege of thinking of our labor in terms of what it means to us. In my years as a...