Work

After finishing my round on a Saturday morning, I was about to leave the hospital. I then heard someone calling my name, and it turned out to be an old friend of mine.

There followed a five-minute conversation starting with "What do you do?" on the corridor. This familiar conversation opener, whether you like it or not, is everywhere around us.

The way we ask or answer this question simply reflects how we identify ourselves in terms of the work we do. In virtually every society, people are defined by the work they perform. It is almost impossible nowadays to say that you "know" somebody without first knowing his or her job title. When we meet someone, the first question we ask is "What do you do?" In a wedding party, we often hear the question "What does the bridegroom (or bride) do?"

On the other hand, we seldom ask, "How do you spend most of your time?" So much so, in fact, that the latter is reserved as a tactful euphemism for asking the question "What do you do?"