Work and who we are

Interesting comment from Kirsty Young, who’s presenting a new BBC series called “The British at work” from 10th March.

In the last 15 years work has, she says, shifted from “being what we do to who we are”.

If that’s the case, then we’d expect work increasingly to be an idol in people’s lives (my career is what gives me worth, gives me what I need, and what comes first when push comes to shove); and we’d need to communicate the good news of the gospel accordingly.

But I wonder if this shift is in fact quite geographically-specific. Our London commuter suburb is full of “live to work” people, by choice or by necessity. But before London, we lived in Hull, which has a (much healthier) “work to live” kind of outlook. Different idols instead, of course, but work for most people is not a huge part of their identity.

But still, it’s worth people like me, and publishers like us, remembering that what holds true inside the M25 often doesn’t outside it!