Quick note to let you know we have new Whiskey Fridays episode out this week exploring a shift in language John and I have been noticing around labor and employment. Language signals deeper root changes— by the time the language shifts, there’s usually a deeper change afoot.

Instead of a language of incentives— those sparkly things you offer indolent employees who require treats to perform their jobs— we see a lot of folks shifting to language describing how a business might care for and meet human needs.

Of course, I admit that Wanderwell and the folks in our larger community are ahead of the bell curve here:

The NY times helpfully published a whole splashy piece the other week reminding me of how the wider world of employment is still very much operating on incentive logic. Capitalism as a system doesn’t care much about needs meeting, so it makes sense that businesses will seek to goad workers into greater productivity as a basic orientation.

What’s underneath the language of care is a lot of folks rethinking the purpose of their businesses. And that’s a pretty radical proposition.

My brain’s well on its way to winter vacation, so I’ll leave it at that. We’ve got already got a few episodes recorded for the new year, on such disparate topics as getting paid, post-capitalist economies, and on The Tyranny of Structurelessness. Wishing you a restful new year.