I was asked this question recently by someone who is looking to move from a role in facilitation within an organization to setting up her own business.
And the question flummoxed me. Because it’s really complicated. At least it feels that way. On the one hand there is the work I am doing that is paid – whether by the hour or for a set project. I think that was initially what my friend was asking about. That’s the easy part. But those work hours rarely take up more than half the working day unless I’m facilitating something live.
Then there is all the ‘surround sound’ that isn’t directly paid for, but feels essential an essential part of my work – the ongoing learning (I’m taking a course on the Art of Developmental Coaching at the moment which is fantastic and deeply applicable), the reading, writing blogs, networking, having brainstorming meetings which need to be useful in the moment whether or not they lead to further work, getting feedback and oversight from my coaching supervisor and mentors which all feels as though it fits in the work category (albeit delightful work that I love to do). And which would definitely count as work if I was on a salaried role.
And then there is another layer that is even less tangible, but still feels critical. The things that I do to create spaciousness in my body and mind – reading a not-directly-related-to-work book, yoga, exploring a new neighborhood. None of those feel as though they ‘count’ as work BUT I also know that when I’m not doing them I find it much harder to find inspiration for writing, or to hold space for clients. And that it is often after that that I have the inspiration for a new way to design a conversation that will lead to breakthroughs. When I don’t build this in then I notice the quality of my work starts to drop.
There are also things that I have to/get to do that are not work at all – jury duty, volunteering at my kid’s school, lunch with a friend… Things that have me busy but don’t fit within the work category. And yet which also help me find new metaphors to be working with or provide source for writing (I’m writing something at the moment on jury deliberation as the ultimate facilitation challenge!)
Finally there are the things within the household – tidying, doing laundry – that probably feel to me most like work (i.e. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have to or wasn’t being paid (which in this canse I’m not!) ) but I know was not what my friend was asking about in her question!
Some of this reflection is more pertinent to those of us who are working independently and are ultimately our own bosses. But I think it also relates to the workplace. When I was in an organization, I would ponder the ridiculousness of how I could sit in front of my computer for an hour, and call it work, even if I didn’t really do anything. But if I were to go for a walk to clear my head, technically it wasn’t work – even if I then came back and created the most beautiful proposal in half the time. Or taking a nap which would allow me to be really effective for the rest of the afternoon was not in itself work.
I know that many wiser minds have written around the age of knowledge based workers as opposed to more hands on working expectations and I’m not going to even try to summarize. But I do feel an invitation to explore as an individual how I am relating to work and what ‘counts’ in my own mind and what leads me to categorize it or not in this way. I wonder what it promptes for you?
My flippant answer to the question of how many hours I work would now be, “either all of them or none of them, depending on my mood”!