Last week, I shared that Wishful Working is changing — slightly. It’s more of a branding and positioning shift than a content pivot. If you’ve been around for a while, you know that this newsletter has always been about much more than just freelancing.
I waffled a lot while working on the new branding, especially the new imagery and icons. I felt compelled to visually represent different types of work, but struggled to articulate why.
Why is it important to think about and talk about the work we do outside of “traditional” employment?
There are a few reasons:
To get a more realistic picture of where our time and energy goes and understand how layers of work can contribute to burnout
According to recent data from the USA, the average full-time worker works around 41.8 hours per week. That’s already a large chunk of time, and many people work more than that.
But what if you’re also a parent? Or a caregiver for someone who is elderly or disabled? That’s work. What if you have a side gig selling art prints at craft fairs on the weekend? Or a creative practice that’s unpaid but important to you? That’s work. Taking time to exercise? That’s literally “working out.”
Expanding our understanding of work reveals the total effort we’re expending and explains why burnout is so pervasive — even when our main “job” hours seem reasonable, the cumulative load may be overwhelming.
To name and understand cognitive labor and the heavy mental load of “invisible” work
Our physical labor and time spent across different forms of work quickly adds up, but so does the cognitive labor. There’s so much stuff to keep track of in our professional and personal lives: work meetings and deadlines, grocery shopping, meal planning, social events, health appointments, birthdays, kids’ schedules, finances, travel planning.
We don’t often think of these things as work because it’s just the stuff of life. The cognitive load is intangible but exhausting.
Talking about it and treating it like real work helps us understand our limits, seek balance, and share the load.
To expose inequality and power dynamics in work and pay
Speaking of physical and mental load: Women spend more time caregiving than men, and they also spend more time on household tasks like food prep and cleanup, cleaning, and laundry. According to a recent study, if women doing unpaid care work in the USA were compensated at the rate of professional care workers, their labor would be worth around $683 billion per year.
The gendered division of unpaid care work is a well-known example of inequality in the world of work, but it’s just one of many. There’s also the racial pay gap, the exploitation of gig workers, and the fact that people from wealthier families are more likely to pursue creative fields because they have a built-in safety net.
Broadening our definition of work helps us identify and interrogate the power structures that dictate who does what work, who benefits from it, and who gets paid.
To acknowledge and celebrate the unpaid labor that keeps people and communities going
Unpaid labor takes many forms, including “formal” volunteering as part of community organizations and informal actions, like helping a neighbor shovel their sidewalk or bringing a meal to a new parent.
In many ways, this type of unpaid work is the invisible glue that holds families and communities together. Unfortunately, our hyper-individualistic culture often blinds us to its value, and because it’s unpaid, many fail to see it as “real work.”
Exploring different types of work shines a spotlight on these vital contributions and helps us recognize the quiet work that keeps society going.
To challenge extractive capitalism and the idea that only profitable, “productive” work matters
We tend to view productivity in the context of traditional employment and capitalism: generate the most output (products, services) with the least input (labor, time). But this transactional and extractive model doesn’t apply to all types of labor.
Giving your baby a bath, for example, is not about streamlining workflows or maximizing shareholder value. The inputs may be similar (labor, time), but the outputs are completely different: connection, love, growth, dignity.
An employment-focused, capitalistic lens devalues work outside of paid employment and fails to measure the most meaningful and life-sustaining work.
Broadening the definition of work invites us to view productivity and output through a different lens — one that centers care, connection, and meaning.
To realign our goals with what actually matters to us and expand our imagination of what success looks like beyond career achievement
There’s still a small voice in the back of my mind that says I won’t really be successful until I’m a “six-figure freelancer.” And actually, I sometimes wonder whether I ought to stop calling myself a freelancer and position myself as a consultant or a fractional something-or-other 🤪
All that to say: I am not immune to the temptation to chase traditional success markers like fancy titles and salary thresholds.
But generally, I’ve learned to define success on my own terms, and I’m ambitious in my pursuit of it. I don’t actually care if I make $100k in a year. I care about spending lots of time with my loved ones, expressing myself creatively, and finding contentment without overconsumption.
When we decenter traditional employment and embrace the full spectrum of work in our lives, we’re giving ourselves permission to craft success that feels authentic to our true selves.
Thank you for your positive responses to last week’s newsletter! And, once again, thank you for reading Wishful Working. I’m just one person trying to make sense of the world of work, and I’m glad I don’t have to go it alone.
See you next week,
Kara
Kara Detwiller is a writer and creative based in small-town Saskatchewan. She specializes in long-form content writing for enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and manufacturing clients. She is also working on her first novel, among other creative pursuits. To connect, reply to this email or find Kara on LinkedIn.
Why Wishful Working? I want to help people thrive in a world obsessed with work and productivity. Together, we’re expanding the definition of productivity, rediscovering life balance, and exploring the many kinds of work that make life possible.
