1. It is just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
Muhammad Ali (b.1942) U.S. boxer. Quoted in New York Times (April 6, 1977)
2. You ask me what I do. Well, actually, you know, I’m partly a liaison man and partly P.R.O. Essentially I integrate the export drive And basically I’m viable from ten o’clock till five.
John Betjeman (1906-84) British poet. “The Executive,” A Nip in the Air (1974)
3. People change their coping techniques when they are unable to change the conditions of their jobs easily, and they must live with a job that is either too demanding or not demanding enough.
Rabi S. Bhagat (b.1950) Indian business author. Human Stress and Cognition in Organisations (coedited and co-written with Terry A. Beehr; 1985). Conclusion
4. Today’s organization is rapidly being transformed from a structure built out of jobs to a field of work needing to be done…jobs are rigid solutions to an elastic problem…and…are going the way of the dinosaur.
William Bridges (b.1933) U.S. transition management thinker. Jobshift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs (1994)
5. I don’t think anybody yet has invented a pastime that’s as much fun, or keeps you as young, as a good job.
Frederick Hudson Ecker (1867-1964) U.S. insurance executive and chairman of Metropolitan Life. Quoted in his obituary. New York Times (March 20, 1964)
6. It is at least conceivable that the 21st century business environment will be so fluid that it defies analysis, forcing executives to fall back upon hunch, or instinct.
John Elkington (b.1949) British author and ecologist. Cannibals with Forks (1997)
7. In the past, business was the employer of all those who wanted to work. In the future, there will be lots of customers, but not lots of jobs.
Charles Handy (b.1932) British business executive and author. The Empty Raincoat: Making Sense of the Future (1994)
8. Editor: A person employed on a newspaper whose business is to separate the wheat from the chaff and see that the chaff is printed.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) U.S. humorist. 1903. Quoted in New York Times (2000)
9. “Oh brave new world,” said Robyn, “where only the managing directors have jobs.”
David Lodge (b.1935) British novelist and critic. Nice Work (1968)
10. You don’t need to interpret tea leaves stuck in a cup
To understand that people who work sitting down get paid who work sitting down get paid more than those people who work standing up.
Ogden Nash (1902-71) U.S. humorist and writer. “Will Consider Situation,” The Face Is Familiar (1940)
11. Ninety percent of our jobs are in jeopardy, and corporations are in the middle of unprecedented change. If we simply do the job our bosses want us to do, we may soon find ourselves without any marketable skills.
Tom Peters (b.1942) U.S. management consultant and author. “The Ominous Prediction of Tom Peters,” Small Manufacturing SIG Newsletter (Ira Smolowitz; 2000)
12. I’d got to the point where the salary was quite exciting and the car was either a BMW or a Mercedes, but there was no job satisfaction.
Pauline Portas (b.1952) British entrepreneur. Financial Times (London) (October 19, 2000)
13. I think it takes more courage to get up every morning and go to a job that’s killing you…more rewards go to the person who does what he or she loves because you do such a better job at it.
Harriet Rubin (b.1952) U.S. author. www.tompeters.com (2000)
