The Work

In the traditions of this file, practice is called 'the work', and the phrase carries more than a job does. It names a craft with a technique and a labour, a course of action with a beginning and an end, and a moral undertaking that the worker is answerable for; a root doctor 'does the work' the way a carpenter builds, and a client is 'worked for' rather than merely advised. The word's plainness is deliberate: it refuses the mystification that outsiders bring, and it keeps the practice inside ordinary life, where it is mostly done by people with other jobs.

The phrase organises the whole encounter. A case is read, a course of work is set, the client is told what to do and what to bring, and the work runs for a set period before it is judged. A worker speaks of 'starting work' on a case, of work that 'took' or 'did not take', and of work that has to be 'taken off' when it has done its job or gone wrong. The same word covers a bath, a hand, a candle and a case that takes months, which is why it is the best single entry into how the tradition thinks.

Because the work is work, it is owed: a worker is paid, and the tradition holds that work done for nothing does not stand - a rule that is widely reported and that carries a real ethic inside it, that the worker is not a charity and the client is not a supplicant. It also means the worker is responsible for what they take on, which is where the tradition's refusals come from.