What does your job mean to you?

This is a subject that I have had some time to reflect on recently. Last week I received a redundancy package, so I find myself with more time to reflect on a lot of things.

Who exactly am I? I think the only genuine way to answer that is to talk about the connections I share. I'm a son, and a brother. I'm a husband and a father. I'm a friend.

So employee and colleague are missing from the list. The irony is, if I had to place a value on what each role means to me, I would have placed those at the bottom. But it's hard to escape the impact their absence has on my state of mind. I like to think of myself as a progressive thinker. I don't like to imagine myself being trapped by a traditional mindset. And yet here I am. At home. During the day. I feel like I'm wagging school.

I have often predicted, frequently to my wife, that the nature of employment is changing. In general, and specifically, for me. I have been attempting to mentally prepare her for contracting, consulting, or start-up life, where a wage is as quaint and old fashioned an idea as not been seen in public without a hat.

But it appears I may have failed to prepare myself.

What does your job mean to you? Would your answer change if tomorrow it was gone? Should it?