At First, It’s Provocative

Oh, I know. I remember vividly the first couple good guys I tested the line on: « It’s a thought leadership project I’m calling Love, at Work. I’m writing a script for a TEDx stage - How conversations about love can revolutionize our workplaces ».

What he said: “Caroline, be careful that you don’t push too far that people misunderstand the validity of your message”.

What he meant: It’s a fine line between being taken seriously and just sounding well, interesting.

FOR SURE: We have to talk about romance. 30% of people globally meet their significant other at work. It’s a thing. Everywhere! People hook up at work all the time. It’s a good bet! In fact, people I tell about the project who have actually met at work share the most intimate and romantic love stories with me! I’m just not sure leading with this kind of love is the right placement for it… See my point is that love isn’t just for romance.

I also checked in with the people who protect me from getting in trouble with my ideas. It went something like this: “I’m not the idea person here but don’t ever forget that it’s the LAW Caroline that governs our relationships at work.” I also heard the occasional sarcastic: « Don’t we have HR for that? »

Of course. We have all that.

Yet more than half of us in the US are dissatisfied with our work. These odds, I don’t like. Also, more 64% of Americans report their workplace as “toxic”. I’m just not cool with that kind of work y’all.

What I am observing from the bi-continental-tricultural-point-of-view I’ve developed over the years is that we are all tired of the way we work. We are at our whit’s end with the incessant failures of your transformation efforts. And we want a better quality of life. Period.

So more than a year into studying love, I’m sitting here wondering: why in the world aren’t we talking about love even more?! Especially at work. It’s a total missed opportunity. An unexplored market.

The way I see it, love is both as the ultimate act of inclusion and rebellion.

And it feel like now is a good time to provoke. To make a huge deal and be loud about it. To convert inspiration into action. With the biggest, most powerful and essential emotion of them all.

Love, at work. So that we don’t have to work like machines.

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Designer's notes: In 2023, I started getting serious about my creative process while studying performance at HEROIC.  I started using this pattern to digitally categorize all the ideas I had for this project I called Love, at Work.