An Honest Day's Work

Usually, when people talk about doing "an honest day's work", that just sounded like a euphemism for unpleasant manual labor. It sounded like the kind of thing that people without ambition say to justify their lot in life. But as I have gained my experiences and studied at the world around me, I find myself reexamining the phrase.

My most valuable skills involve persuading people. Making sales, writing grants, negotiation, arbitration, advertising, all of it is variations on changing people's minds. I'm proud of my skills, and I do my best to use them for good, but they come at a price - the mental taxation of knowing that you are bending people's minds against their will. (Not that I think I have magical powers of suggestion, but I am still using my will against others.)

So what is an honest day's work? Now, it sounds like being productive without having to influence people. It's doing work that needs to get done and not worrying about anything else. It's doing things that benefit people without having to pull the wool over their eyes. And that is definitely something to be proud of.

I can see a character who enjoyed doing an honest day's work because it was simple and wholesome. I also can see a different character who did an honest day's work because they were no good at influencing people. These would be two very different characters, the latter of whom could be at a severe disadvantage to resisting people with a forked or silver tongue.