Meaningful work emerges from the relationship you have with the work you do. If you go to work just to make money, chances are that you will reach saturation point relatively quickly and then you will need to find other rewards from the work you do.
Meaningful work is a mutual benefit to you and your employer. Your employer wants to capture your engagement, ideas, and energy. You want work to be more than simply a paycheck. Work can be fun, social, or even cool. Work can also have meaning. If your employer can help you find meaning at work, it is a mutually beneficial relationship – you win and your employer wins.
Gallup survey data shows that emotional engagement of employees and customers is the key to growth and profits. If you are actively engaged with the outcome of what you do, then there is a higher chance that you will be engaged and find your work meaningful. It’s critical to know that the meaning of work is in the relationship between what you do, how you do it, and the outcomes you obtain.
Many companies toss around feel-good buzzwords like, ‘family friendly,’ ‘empowered employees,’ and ‘respecting the dignity of others.’ However, are these buzzwords reality based? It’s important you check it out. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much value alignment within organizations. The problem is that the values described by senior management were very different from those practiced by the rest of the company according to one survey.
Life Lesson Earned: If you aren’t engaged in what you do and can’t see any relationship between what you do and the outcome, there is a higher probability that you won’t find meaning in your work, ultimately be dissatisfied and move on.