the first requirement of any job is that
it should pay but almost as important
yet much less commonly recognized is
that a job should feel full of meaning
yet how does a job get to feel
meaningful what even does it mean to say
that a job has meaning there seem to be
three things that imbue work with
meaning firstly a meaningful job Taps
into the deepest most sincere and
talented parts of us so different people
will necessarily find different sorts of
work meaningful according to what's
inside their deepest self for some
meaning might emerge from baking bread
others will feel their deep self engaged
by computer science for others still
they'll feel most fully themselves most
fully alive when investing money or
teaching kids a foreign
language secondly a meaningful job is
one which to some extent ENT helps
others which fixes a problem that humans
have a job which in ways large and small
serves
Humanity meaningful work provides a
service to
others and thirdly a job feels
meaningful when the person doing it can
viscerally sense day-to-day the impact
of their work upon an audience not only
is the job theoretically meaningful it
actually feels meaningful as one does it
in the course of an average day why
should it be so hard to find meaningful
work why are we in such danger of doing
work that brings in money but doesn't
fulfill the meaning side of us three big
reasons Stand Out firstly because it's
perilously hard for us to locate our
true interests in the time we have
before simply paying the bills becomes
the imperative our interests don't
manifest themselves spontaneously they
require us to patiently analyze
ourselves and try out a range of options
to see what feels as if it might have
the best fit for us but unfortunately
schools and universities as well as
Society at large doesn't Place much
emphasis on this stage of education on
helping people to understand their
authentic working identities there's far
more emphasis on simply getting ready
for any job than a job that would be
particularly well suited to us which is
a Pity not just for individuals but for
the economy as a whole because people
will always work better harder and more
fruitfully when their deep selves are
engaged secondly many jobs are
relatively meaningless because it's very
possible in the current economy to
generate profits from selling people
things that aren't really helping them
in any way but are more hoodwinking them
or preying on their lack of
self-command most of us have a
dangerously loose hold on what really
brings a satisfaction longterm which
gives room for entrepreneurs to build
huge and profitable businesses selling
stuff which no one's particularly proud
of at the end of an average day those
working in these businesses know in
their hearts that they haven't really
helped anyone have a better life the job
pays that's why they keep doing it but
there's sadly very little meaning
thirdly a job may have real meaning May
genuinely be helping others but it may
not feel like this day-to-day because
many organizations are so large so slow
moving so split up over so many
continents that the purpose of
everyone's workday gets lost amidst
endless meetings memos conference calls
an admin if you're one of 10,000 people
on four continents working towards a
product that will help human in 2022 you
may well lose the thread of what the
real purpose of it all is no wonder
people who work in large organizations
often fantasize about throwing it all in
and working in a job with a more
tangible sense of the end result for
example running a small BNB or a
landscape gardening firm the very scale
of modern Enterprise has sapped a lot of
work of a sense of meaning this
diagnosis helps to point the way to what
we might begin to do to make work more
meaningful for people firstly pay a lot
more attention to helping people find
their vocation their real working
authentic selves through moves like
career Psychotherapy extended work
placements and changes to school and
University curricula so as to allow
students to start to analyze their
identities and aptitudes from a much
younger age secondly the more we as
customers can support businesses engaged
in meaningful work the more meaningful
jobs there will be consumers have an
enormous power over what kind of lives
we can have as producers users by
raising the quality of our demand we
raise the number of jobs there are which
can answer to Mankind's deeper needs
thirdly in businesses which do
meaningful work but on too large a scale
over too long a period for it to feel
meaningful day-to-day we need to get
better at telling stories of what the
business is up to we need to give work
some of the intimacy of a small BNB even
if it is a giant
multinational ensuring that work is
Meaningful is vital it's not a luxury it
determines the greatest issue of all in
modern economics and politics how hard
and well people will work and therefore
how successful and Wealthy our societies
can be