On the Job: Labor Day Vocabulary: Labor Day Lexicon: Words That Put You To Work

Any manual or physical activity that is not done for fun can be called a labor. A labor is a task or a burden that one must accomplish, usually in the course of one’s job. In modern times, when fewer people do physical activity as part of their work, a labor has become anything you don’t want to do — anything that is a long, unenjoyable slog can be called a labor.

Toil comes from the the French toiler which meant “agitate, stir up, entangle, writhe about,” and is ultimately from the Latin for hammer, tudes. This etymology effectively communicates how toil can beat you down and exhaust you, until you think you have given everything to your work and there is nothing left inside of you.

Labor, toil and slog all indicate hard work, but only slog carries with it a sense of just how difficult, how mind-numbingly awful, that work can be. Slog also has the sense of an extended period of hard work, not just one or two tasks but an extended timeframe where all one does is toil away at job after job, in a series that goes on seemingly forever, with no end in sight.

No word better exemplifies the bright side of labor than this word, which means inventive, resourceful and clever. Being industrious falls under that old slogan of “work smarter, not harder.” Industrious people can use the tools at their disposal and find shortcuts to operate more efficiently rather than having to engage in long, drawn out tasks that take forever and leave one exhausted.

To work with a sense of diligence is to work with care and dedication, and to persevere until the task at hand is complete. To be diligent is to be aware that the work one does is a reflection of themselves, and to take pride in that fact. People are inevitably judged, at least in part, by the work they do, and those who exhibit diligence understand this and want to put forth the best part of who they are in their work.