Technically, You're a Human

(But You Were Raised by Elves)

Remember the Gimbel’s manager in Elf who asks Will Farrell’s character, “Why are you smiling like that?” Buddy the Elf doesn’t dim his halogenic grin a kilowatt as he says, “Smiling’s my favorite.” The manager stares at him a beat and then says, “Make work your favorite. That’s your favorite, okay?”

The ping pong tables and beer kegs that now stand so forlornly in the lobbies of big tech firms have taught us all to look askance at the suggestion to make work the center of our lives. Work should not be your favorite. My interviewees for the M/S this year have helped me be skeptical about anyone who loves work as much as Buddy seems to. I mean, the guy pulls all-nighters like an intern on cocaine.

Still, I have to confess that the elf has a provocative vocational model: work like you play, play like you work.

Writing thousand-word posts on Friday afternoons in 2022 has sometimes made an elf of me. I haven’t pulled any all-nighters, of course. But writing anything you care about takes longer than you’d like. Still, although Mode-Switching may not be as much fun as eating a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookie Dough with Buddy the Elf—it still leaves me eager to create more newsletters in 2023.

The last M/S before Christmas anticipates three developments in the new year.

1. Focus Group Research. Ben Hoekstra is the public relations coordinator who launched the newsletter and guided it through its first six months. (I’m also grateful for his management of the newsletter’s talented intern MaKena Mayfield.) Ben will briefly rejoin the M/S team in January to run focus groups, asking readers what they’d yet like to see in the publication. Although we’ve already recruited two pools of research participants, we’d welcome you to toss in your two cents as well. Please let Ben know about your experience with the M/S this year, jotting in your email subject line “M/S Eval” and then finishing this sentence, “Something I’ve been wishing for in the Mode/Switch…”

2. Graphic design and photography hire. You may recall reading about Sarah Hao, an early careerist featured in a M/S survival story about cyber-stalking. I’m pleased to say that she will join the publishing team as a graphic designer and photographer in the winter and spring months of 2023. Sarah brings extensive experience as a UX designer in Beijing as well as a growing body of work in her master’s program at Calvin University where she is studying Media and Strategic Communication.

3. Podcast Launch. This newsletter has always been about dialogue. Next year, it graduates to multilogue, as six podcasters gather twice a month to discuss a Mode/Switch issue. The roster is impressive: Shaq Anthony, David Wilstermann, Dana Krol, Emily Bosscher, and LaShone Manuel. They come from a range of professions, but they all share in common a commitment to mentoring rising professionals. Their sass and candor will help make other things than work your favorite in 2023.

Top left to right: Shaq Anthony, David Wilstermann; bottom left to right Dana Krol, Emily Bosscher, and LaShone Manuel.

My hope for the year is that the Mode/Switch community continues to grow. I’ve been grateful to see more than 5,000 visits this year, as each issue pulls in 300-500 views. Admittedly, it’s a tiny community in a mainstream attention economy that runs on virality. (Substack’s model deliberately seeks to cultivate readership without duping people into clicking.) But I’m grateful that so many of you have taken time to think (and laugh) about your work.

Remember that scene in Elf where Buddy explains his status to a little girl? “Technically I’m a human,” he concedes, “but I was raised by elves.” What do you make of that line and your own sense of vocation? Does Buddy get things hilariously backwards? Are you actually a human and only technically an employee-elf? Or does the movie make a needed mode switch? Maybe the best way to be a human at work is to recover your elvish upbringing. Either way, here’s hoping for Buddy-levels of intensity when it comes to work and play in the year to come.