Scott Schieman is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Toronto and author of the forthcoming book I Want M.O.R.E. - Why Your Job Still Matters.
After years of an anti-work narrative that helped stigmatize the “What do you do?” question, and a push to proclaim that work doesn’t define us, we have lost something essential: a kind of permission to let it matter.
The “What do you do?” question became tacky, reductive, stigmatized. We became embarrassed to acknowledge the centrality of work in our lives.
But my concern isn’t about social etiquette. It’s much deeper: At a time when we are being compelled to make a human case for why artificial intelligence shouldn’t displace our jobs, we need sharper awareness to explain why our jobs still matter.
Banning the “What do you do?” question does not liberate us. Instead, it leaves us inarticulate about something that typically takes up about one-third of our lives.
I believe it is time to reclaim it.
My research reveals how the “What do you do?” question captures something irreplaceable. The question actually inspires answers to something much deeper about anchoring identity, expanding the self, relating to others and exceeding in ways that leave a mark.
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Since 2019, I’ve led national surveys of tens-of-thousands of Canadian and American workers, asking hundreds of questions to probe those intangible assets. Across all those questions, I was particularly struck by the responses to one I excavated from the classic 1973 U.S. Quality of Employment Survey: “How much do you think you can you tell about a person just from knowing what they do for a living? Would you say a lot, some, a little or nothing at all?”
A half-century ago, 20 per cent of American workers said they could tell “nothing at all” about a person by knowing their job, while 80 per cent expressed that they could tell at least “a little.” (To my knowledge, no prior data on this question exists in Canada.)
With all the anti-work hullabaloo in recent years, I assumed the responses would be sour. I was wrong: In my 2023 surveys of Canadian and American workers, 11 and 12 per cent, respectively, said they could tell “nothing at all,” while almost 9 in 10 workers said that they could tell at least “a little” about a person just by knowing their job.
Sometimes knowing just “a little” can go a long way. What do I mean? As it turns out, I wasn’t the first to be curious about this. That same 1973 Quality of Employment Survey included open-ended follow-up questions to probe people’s reasons for their responses. What could they tell about someone by knowing their job? When I asked that same follow-up question in my 2023 surveys, I found similar themes as those discovered 50 years ago.
The “What do you do?” question can be a portal to understanding others. As a 34-year-old chauffeur told me: It provides insight into what people “find important in life.”
A 35-year-old IT support worker added: “Nothing holds true for all people, but you might be able to tell what they are passionate about or where they are in life.”
While one 24-year-old graphic designer took the measure of someone “by listening to them talking about their job and why they got the job,” another 26-year-old graphic designer reflected on the tone in “their attitude toward what they do.”
Knowing someone’s job can provide “an indication of how their mind works,” a 68-year-old real estate developer told me.
“It can tell you if they are self-motivated or a self-starter,” said a 43-year-old piano teacher.
“If they work a high-pressure job, I know they are confident and capable,” added a 33-year-old college men’s basketball coach.
And a 20-year-old ski patroller can tell “if someone is an adrenaline junkie and how well they hold up in stressful situations.”
Others extended the insights with long lists of qualities.
“A job can tell you about their state of mind, mental fortitude, common sense, emotional scale, dissociative tendencies, communication skills,” said a 32-year-old realtor.
A 35-year-old business officer in an academic department added: “It can tell you about their general abilities – like writer versus analytical, critical versus abstract thinker; thought processes like methodical, whimsical.”
A job sometimes reveals “what someone is willing to put up with” (said a 57-year-old title clerk), “what they are willing to do to earn a living” (said a 38-year-old supervisor) and “what they consider themselves capable of” (said a 23-year-old resident assistant at a university).
“I can tell more from their tone of voice about how they feel about that job and possibly even work in general,” explained a 26-year-old behaviour technician, “like the things they value or at least what they believe they can do that adds value to the world.”
These responses don’t sound reductive. And yet somehow, we thought stigmatizing the “What do you do?” question would free us from being defined by work. The casual dismissal was naïve, thinning the language to articulate what work defines in us.
My data shows the question reveals something deeper about what makes work human – and why we should fight to preserve that.
So go ahead: Ask what someone does for a living. You might help them see why their job still matters.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.