WorkLore

I’ve been thinking on this post for a while but I have also struggled with writing it. How do I capture all the nuances that this name resonates for me? I had a draft, but was wondering how I might improve it. 

So, I did what a lot of people do. I asked Claude to explain the business name, providing only the name and type of business. I figured it would be a bit like asking a group of people to comment on what came to mind hearing the name without any other context. 

It delivered what I expected. 

But there were also gaps because it’s not me.

What it got right? (Claude’s answers (edited))

Work – “No ambiguity about the domain — this is a business about the workplace, employment, and people at work.”

Lore – “carries several rich layers: Knowledge & wisdom — Lore means accumulated knowledge passed down over time… this signals deep expertise — not just rules and policies, but the kind of hard-won, nuanced understanding that only comes from experience. Story & culture — Lore is inherently narrative. It suggests understanding that every organization has its own culture, history, and oral tradition. Anthropological depth — Lore has a slightly folkloric, even tribal feel. It implies we don’t just read org charts, listen, observe, and understand how people actually behave at work. Curiosity and respect — You collect lore because you find something worth studying. The name implies the approach is one of genuine curiosity rather than a one-size-fits-all playbook.”

I like a lot of what Claude came back with because I was thinking along the same lines. My language was perhaps a little less precise, and a little more personal though. 

This is what I originally wrote: 

I named my company WorkLore because both parts of the name are important to the experience of human beings in the workplace. 

First off, “work” is important to most people. Sometimes we define ourselves by our work or our job title. When we meet people, we ask them about their work. When we meet people who are older, we ask them if they still work or when they plan to stop working (retiring).  We spend hours and hours every week “doing work” or “at work”. We go to school or we take extra courses to find more fulfilling work. The vast majority of us rely on work in exchange for the money that keeps us fed and housed, at minimum, and buys us the things we want in our capitalistic society. 

We have whole areas of “work” dedicated to “work” like recruiters, performance management systems, talent pipelines, tool design, software programming, business analysts, theories, processes, and strategies to improve work. 

Work also gets things done. As opposed to play, which is enjoyable and something we think of as opposite to work, work makes things happen. We have metrics, KPIs, targets, quotas, objectives, visions and missions, and a host of other ways to measure and motivate to make “work” happen. 

Work appears to be very important. To all of us. So, I wanted to signal its importance.

Then there’s Lore.

This is the odd word. The one that you don’t often hear in workplaces. The one that is associated with knowledge but also with anecdote, like “folklore”. The Oxford English dictionary records one of its first uses in The Legend of St. Katherine in 1225. That’s old! It originally meant a lesson or the condition of being taught, of being important enough to pass on to someone else, wisdom that will be of value to others. 

I chose “lore” because there is something about it that speaks to something more ancient, more enduring that using a word like knowledge or know-how. There’s an element of value, even sacredness that inheres in the word. It speaks to hard won knowledge, guarded, shared carefully with those who are willing and interested. 

Human beings are also enduring and have value. We also haven’t fundamentally changed in millennia. Our lives and technologies have changed, but people loving and creating and building and celebrating haven’t really changed for all our differences from those who came before us.

I also chose “lore” because it is frequently associated with storytelling and the idea that stories convey wisdom or truth. They convey it in a different way than a report, or a seminar or even a spreadsheet. Stories – lore – convey truth and value by allowing us to see ourselves within it. We each have a lore, a story, that we can tell, and I wanted to signal that this too has value. 

So WorkLore brings together something important to us – the labour that we undertake, and the fundamental way we understand our humanity. 

For me, that’s where WorkLore came from. 

Claude picked up on a lot of that, but it missed the parts that are unique to this human who dreamed up the name. A name that means something to me, and I hope means something to others who I work with. 

Which explanation do you prefer?