Alain De Botton recently published a book titled "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" in 2009 where he observed people in the workplaces which includes a rocket scientist, biscuit manufacturer, accounting firm, and so on in order to "shine a spotlight on the working world. I wanted to write a book that would open our eyes to the beauty and occasional horror of the working world." (as quoted on Amazon).

Alain is an articular speaker that talks with wit and wisdom at the same time, as you can see from the below talk he made about "success and failure", "career crisis", and "job snobbery" at the Ted Conference in 2009. Alain likes to talk and write about philosophies of everyday life -- such as work. Just have a listen to the talk titled "A kinder, gentler philosophy of success"...

Here is just a sample excerpt of the deep philosophical ideas that he talks about in the above video ...

"There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before.  And it is again linked to something nice.  And that nice thing is called "meritocracy". ... A meritocratic society is one in which if you got talent, and energy, and skill, you will get to the top -- nothing should hold you back.  Beautiful idea. The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who get to the top merit getting to the top, you also by implication (and in a far more nasty way) believe in a society where those who deserves to get to the bottom, gets to the bottom and stays there.  In other words, your position in life seems merited and deserved.  That makes failure seems much more crushing.  ...  It leads to increase rates of suicide.  ... I think it is a crazy idea. ... It is insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuienly meritocratic.  It is an impossible dream. ...  There are simply too many random factors -- accidents, accidents at birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc.  ...  We will never get to grade people as they should.  ... It is a sin to come to any view as to who to talk to based on his business card.  It is not their post that should count."

Alain De Botton had also given a talk with William Hearst at "City, Arts, and Lectures" in San Francisco.  The below video is an excerpt where he talks humorously about the HR department....

The below YouTube video is just another excerpt of that talk that he gave in Australia. 

The full talk of which is linked here on fora.tv where one notable part of which Alain says that he sometimes feel guilty as a writer that he is "not at work" as much as he should be.  But his guilt is relieved when he discovered that people who do "go to work" in offices actually wastes a lot of time at work.  So now he doesn't feel so bad.

One theme that runs through many of his talks is that one of the pleasures of work is that one is able to have an effect on the world, to put some order, to make the world a better place. It can be performing a curative surgery, or it can be eliminating a squeak from a door, or making a yummy biscuit. Unfortunately, many modern jobs are so specialized and removed from the actual goal, that one may not always see one's work's positive effect. Hence one may start to wonder things like "what am I doing this for?", "what is the purpose?", etc. This is when stepping back and taking a look from the perspective of a bigger picture might be useful.

The below video in interview format is another instance where you hear this theme...

Article written in 2009.  Author may receive Amazon and Google revenues via display ads and links in this article.