We hear the phrase so many times at this point in the year, with Thanksgiving only a couple of days away: “I’m thankful for [something, someone, etc.].” We all have specific things in our lives that we are thankful for: our families, our friends, our loved ones. This year is no different: entering Year Four of a disruptive pandemic, that, while no longer in its “emergency phase,” still causes concern, we are all certainly thankful for our health and the wellbeing of those in our families, our social networks, and within our network of peers and colleagues.

In 2022, however, being thankful means something different…or, at least, should mean something different.

It’s sometimes incredibly difficult to separate “work” from “personal” life, with so many of us experiencing our career paths intertwining with the everyday routines at home. However, there is an aura to our lives today that is not only different from just a few years ago, but significantly different than it has been in decades.

We’re living in a new world of work, and, the keyword there (“living”) means that work in and of itself isn’t just a place we go for eight hours a day, but rather something that defines us as people. At the core, we are humans. And, many of us express ourselves in terms of the work we do and the skills that we have attained.

While it isn’t always healthy, there are many, many professionals that entwine their careers and personal lives in such a way that there is sometimes a vast difficulty in separating the two. This, however, is the nature of how we work today. We are always “on.” We are very frequently consumed by the content in our fields, craving information, news, and insights through social networks and communication with those within our industries.

Thus, this year, “being thankful” takes on a much different meaning, one that revolves around the concept of flexibility and the notion that we are living in a world of innovation and evolution.

Let’s be thankful that we have firmly moved into an era when remote work and hybrid workplaces are an accepted and widely-adopted means of getting work done. Let’s be thankful for those business leaders that have cultivated flexible workplace environments that rely on remote work as a viable option for their workforce.

Let’s be thankful that worker empowerment is perhaps the strongest it has ever been, with The Great Resignation giving us so much more than unhappy professionals by providing workers with the strength to stand up for themselves and each other for better working conditions, more flexibility in the workplace, and so much more.

Let’s be thankful for those business leaders preaching and practicing the art of conscious leadership. Let’s be thankful for executives and managers that lead with empathy, compassion, and understanding. Let’s be thankful to leaders that show appreciation and mentor those that they manage and work with on a daily basis.

Let’s be thankful for the folks across the workforce spectrum that are actively promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, who are striving for a more diverse workforce, more diverse talent communities, and diversity-centric hiring and talent acquisition. Let’s be thankful to those business leaders that have created and will continue to create truly inclusive workplace environments and do what they can to develop a vibrant workplace culture that reflects positive values. And let’s be thankful for those business professionals that consistently support, lobby for, and devote time and resources to equal pay initiatives, deeper collaboration, and vibrant discussions regarding DE&I.

Let’s be thankful for the technology that has helped us transform the ways we leverage talent, engage workers, and ultimately get work done. Let’s be thankful for the solution providers that consistently innovate and provide enterprises with agile automation, next-generation analytics, workforce intelligence, and progressive functionality. Let’s be thankful for the platforms that have pushed direct sourcing into new and exciting territory, and let’s be thankful for the providers that are actively embracing the Future of Work movement.

And, finally, let’s be thankful for those that think outside of the box and desire to push the envelope. Let’s be thankful for those that helped transform the ways we work. Let’s be thankful for those individuals that regard “work” as needing to be more human-centric. And let’s be thankful for everyone that believes that the Future of Work movement is how we move forward into the next great era of business history.