Management expert Peter Drucker once observed that "everything must degenerate into work if anything is to happen." Thomas Edison put a more positive spin on making a living: "I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun." Benedictine monks take yet another view: laborare est orare ("to work is to worship"). But however one defines labor, it is becoming increasingly evident that both work and the workforce are in a state of transition. Next-generation workers and new ways of working are joining in a mutually propulsive feedback loop that is already affecting operational infrastructure, corporate culture, talent acquisitiob and retention, and our notions about what a job is - and what is should be.