Too many critical phenomena affect the Italian world of work: high youth and female unemployment, increasing of working poor, professional and territorial polarization, mismatch between supply and demand of work, 2 and a half million NEETs, increase of degraded jobs, demotivation at work, tertiary education at the bottom of European rankings. This article maintains that the structural origin of these phenomena is the poverty the work itself and inadequacy of most the professional systems in industry, services and public administration. This has a negative impact on the efficiency and effectiveness, innovativeness of the products and services offered together with a declining quality of working life, limited opportunities to get better jobs, increasing scarce motivation. A public policy and programs of redesign of jobs within organizations is proposed aiming at a professionalization of everyone. Professionalization means the increase value of roles and professions and of related skills at every level: quality and decent works that create value in the economy and in society and that strengthen dignity, social recognition, rights of every worker, both the self-employed and the "subordinate" ones.