My Zen Path Newsletter 8: Job Crafting & more...

My Zen Path

Dear reader,

I hope you are doing great and enjoying My Zen Path stories and articles.

This monthly newsletter is an interesting mix of some stories, videos and first My Zen Path Exclusive: Honey, I saved the bees! It is a story of a young techie Amit Godse who quit his job to conserve the honeybees and built his business around it.

The article How do you look at your job? discusses how we relate to our work: as job, career or calling. I have also written a detailed review of Barry Schwartz's book: Why We Work that discusses good work, bad work and how our beliefs about work and corresponding workplaces influence our work and ideas. This is really a wonderful book and I'd highly recommend people working in organizational development, HR or talent management to read this book.

Also, as an enjoyable experiment I have created a Hi-resolution wallpaper using my own photo and a beautiful quote about work by L.P. Jacks. Do let me know if you like this wallpaper.

You can write your comments, feedback or few words of encouragement directly in the comments section of the post/article or via contact page of the website.

I wish you a great weekend and wonderful month ahead! The newsletters would be sent on the last Saturday of the month.

Thank you!
~ Manish @ MyZenPath.com
December 4th, 2023

Job Crafting

I have discussed Why We Work: Part 1, Part 2 and How do you look at your work? in this month earlier. This talk by Amy Wrzesniewski is related to these topics and I had mentioned Luke's story in my detailed discussion of Why We Work as an example of Job Crafting. That story of a hospital custodian (Luke) was …

Why We Work - 2

This is the second part of the book review: Why We Work 1, please read the first before reading this second part. How Good Work Goes Bad The studies and stories Schwartz narrates here are contrary to many of our strongly held beliefs. He cites a comprehensive article by Timothy Judge and colleagues about significance of salary to job satisfaction …

Why We Work - 1

Barry Schwartz is an American psychologist studying the link between economics and psychology. He teaches at Swarthmore College and also frequently publishes editorials in the New York Times applying his research in psychology to current events. He has also authored many books based on his studies. Schwartz is an impressive TED speaker and has delivered wonderful TED talks such as …

Honey, I saved the bees!

Honey, I saved the bees! Amit Godse quit his high-paying software job with a large MNC to save the honeybees. His team removes and relocates the beehives without killing the bees. This young man from Pune (India) has an interesting story to share with My Zen Path readers. In this first MyZenPath Exclusive I have personally met and interviewed Amit …

Work & Leisure Confluence

This is yet another experiment to create and offer a simple gift- a wallpaper that you can freely download and use it for you laptop, PC or other devices. Please do no modify this wallpaper. However, feel free to share it as it is with anyone and use it wherever you want. This wallpaper uses a beautiful quote about work …

Are you confused?

Well, if someone says it's perfectly alright to be confused and unsure about things at times; you're going to get perplexed. Yet, that's what I am trying to convey through this article. :-) We have been often conditioned to believe that having questions without answers or confusion is a bad thing. But if you think about it, we all face …

How do you look at your work?

Work is not simply work! Not all people look at it in the same way - it means different things to different people. It is interesting how organizational behaviour researchers study and understand how we relate to our work. In the research paper published by Amy Wrzesniewski, Clark McCauley, Paul Rozin and Barry Schwartz in 1997, they examine three ways …