Perelin: In 2023, we may be able to make work ‘positive’

tomtidgewellDecember 2, 2022

It’s hard to feel like you’re doing well in life if you don’t have a purpose. These Ottawans are trying to help with that.

“Quiet Quit” defines the job of many people. Certainly, we should be able to get along better with each other than that. Photo by Sean Gallup /Getty Images

After learning to work online, we made a big resignation followed by a quiet quit. As we approach the end of 2022, we believe we will need new trends. I suggest working towards a goal. Here in Ottawa we have some good examples of that.

Striving to achieve positive goals that benefit others is not all that new. Neither is trying to dominate. The great resignations were those who realized that they could do better than risk themselves with shoddy jobs with disastrous wages and no benefits.

The fact that we actually give a name to a very natural desire on the part of humans to have a decent job for a livable wage without constantly doing more than one’s job is what I I think it’s a sign that it’s going to rock our relationship. The response to paid work was long overdue.

Work with purpose, I say. Perhaps it could help make 2023 a year of prosperity through the woes of the pandemic.

The idea is simple. Instead of trying to find purpose in your slowly soul-crushing work, you can build your work life around positive purpose.

Given that bills still have to be paid for many of us, this often means an altruistic side business. and founded Tuesday Club 613 last March after witnessing the impact the weeks of occupation had on downtown businesses.

Cameron’s father ran a small business in his hometown of Fredericton, New Jersey. So, along with his partner, they started encouraging people to go out. We deliberately chose small establishments and visited them on the quietest night of the week.

It didn’t take long for word to spread, but he says it now has nearly 300 members (including me, my oldest child). We go out and support local institutions, have fun and meet like-minded people who care about supporting their local communities.

Without purpose, it’s hard to feel like you’re making great progress in life, says Sarasiya. “A small drop in the bucket is important, even if it’s in the smallest way possible, to be able to help someone in that situation.”

For others, working toward a purpose can become a full-time job in itself.

Three years ago, I wrote a series for Citizen in the 2020s that has since spread hopefully before us. I was profiling a local innovator, people in our city who look confidently and hopefully into his next decade.

One example is Impact Hub Ottawa, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this week. Its mission is to work with others in the region to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that Canada and nearly 200 countries have committed to achieve by 2030.

Like everyone else, Impact Hub had to go all-virtual for two years. For organizations dedicated to using social connections to create a better world, the inability to see people in person has been a major challenge. “The resilience community that Impact Hub Ottawa has grown to grow since 2012 continues to support each other and our organization and the people of our city have for our unique social impact space. We are proud to be demonstrating our values,” says managing director Elizabeth Cleland.

The pandemic has forced many of us to rethink our relationship with work. In 2023 (and hopefully beyond), I want a normalization of work that benefits others and society. And if we could stretch that goal a little bit further, we’d like to reduce the importance of companies whose sole purpose is to make shareholders richer.

Can it trend?

Bridget Perelin (they/them) are authors from Ottawa.