This Labor Day: forecast, backcast, rest, and dream

How have the ways you labor changed over the years? My very first job that my social security benefits will register goes back to working in a local Roy Rogers fast food restaurant at age 16, serving fried chicken and biscuits. I was on my feet most of the day and took pride in inserting my time card into the punch clock machine registering the start of my shift with that satisfying hole puncher crunch sound. Over the years my labor has varied, from jobs requiring me to be able-bodied (working catering jobs as a food server long into the night); to the humility required for anonymous temp jobs until something better came along; to a hybrid version of physical movement and mental activity (when I was a middle school English teacher); to work that leveraged my intellectual capacity and knowledge — as a professor and now as a creativity strategist. That diversity of labor has been a privilege. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figur…