a new year & a new comm 144

Welcome to the New Year! The class blog roll continues to increase as students get an early start on winter session. With only 17 days to cover a semester's worth of course material, taking care of some class assignments before the beginning of the term reduces the stress of taking a class in a compressed time frame.

In reviewing the first two chapters of the text for the class, the section on the meaning of work caught my attention. The authors note, "Some of the values being espoused today about work signal not a retreat from it but a transformation of its meaning--from drudgery to a source of personal significance and fulfillment. Employees want to feel that the work they do is worthwhile, not just a way to draw a paycheck. This trend is increasingly pervasive" (p. 22). The paragraph goes on the same vein, but not a single citation. So I wonder if there's empirical research to support the authors' assertions. Is work either drudgery or a source of personal fulfillment? Can work be a mix of both at the same time? Sometimes the work I do is a joy, other times it's tedious, and sometime the same task is a bit of both. And I wonder if there is a trend that's increasingly pervasive in which people want to self-actualize at work. I know many people who work to live and many who live to work.

Just a few thoughts as I prepare for the winter session to start tomorrow. Going into school early to take care of any chair-related duties. Then I'll be participating in workshop I mentioned in a previous post on how to integrate new media into the classroom rest of the day, so likely won't get a chance to post to this blog.

Looking forward to COMM 144, which I always enjoy teaching, and the new format I designed for winter session.

--Prof. Cyborg