Does work need to feel meaningful to be worth doing?

[PinkFruitbat]

Would welcome any comment on the premise that work should only be undertaken if we derive ‘meaning’ from it.

x.com/lbc/status/2093021913211863365?s=46&t=wjgj9AHysRwn3YQi4vJFdw

Well that’s a bit daft

I work so I can earn money and pay my bills, it provides structure to my day and stops me from being a hermit That's the meaning I get from my job. I'm not looking for self actualisation through my work, very few ever achieve that.

How do we define meaningful? Teaching is probably quite meaningful but there's plenty of teachers had enough and ready to quit because meaningful work isn't enough

Certainly the various covid lockdowns showed that retail is quite important, especially for food. Is packing fruit and veg or working in a meat packing plant meaningful? Well it is quite important and has an impact on many people. Is working in Boots meaningful? I don't know but lots of people do it and enjoy it and lots of people benefit from it.

Do those working in less "meaningful" jobs feel ok about working to pay tax which is then spent on financial support for those who want to wait for meaningful work to come along.

In relation to that young woman specifically I suspect what she means is "I consider myself overqualified to work in Boots".

My view is that you can get self worth and meaning from most jobs. We are fortunate to have some choice in this country. Those who choose to reject working in a shop because it is beneath them, yet stay at home on welfare, don’t realise how privileged they are.

I'm doing ' meaningful' work as an AHP in nhs...thinking of pivoting to earn some proper money.

Yes

Meaningful work makes everything make sense to me

No, it's just something I do to get money.

That is meaningful though. We all need money, that's the meaning of work for many. And nothing wrong with that

I've done shit jobs, good jobs, and downright awful jobs. The thing they all have in common is that I was supporting myself and my family and contributing to society through the taxation system. That is what made all of them meaningful.

I would personally struggle to do a job I didn't find any meaning in/didn't feel like it benefitted the world generally. A large pay packet wouldn't swing it for me if the job seemed pointless or actively harmful.

Meaningful? Don't be daft. The whole point of work is that it isn't something you would be doing unless you were being paid to do so.

Only a relatively few people are able to earn a living from their passion or from doing something 'meaningful'. The rest of the planet concentrates on the money they earn at the end of the day/week/month; and being able to use that money to support themselves and their families. That's what gives it meaning.

Shes mad

we need to get paid

guess she doesn’t but most of us do, that is the meaning

There's a principal in Leadership about "people require meaning and purpose to make work fulfilling"
The theory being that if you know Why you are doing something it helps to make it more fulfilling.
I train business leaders so often talk about why the people doing work need to know the why as you'll get more buy-in.
I also ask if you won the lottery would you still do your job? I get mixed replies.
I genuinely would do my job as I do find it meaningful (and obviously it pays the bills)
Sorry probably a more serious answer than you were expecting.

There's a line though isn't there. I would find it morally injurious to work for ICE, or directly managing the razing of lowland forests where chimpanzees live, or doing research funded by the dark web far right intended to "prove" the benefits of eugenics. I feel like almost everyone would.

And I would personally draw the line at other things that some people might find ok, such as working in a school that had draconian behaviour policies that I believed impacted SEN children poorly, or in marketing for the aviation industry, or in manufacturing high corn syrup drinks and foods.

I am lucky enough though, that I have never had to battle my principles too much, it's a privilege. I've been able to work in charities and B corps and generally ethical industries. I find it pretty hard to sustain motivation these days unless I firmly believe what I am doing is directly and actively beneficial to someone or works towards systemic change of a kind I believe in. This makes me smug and insufferable, and I appreciate not everyone has this luxury.

The woman is not apologetic or grateful.

She seems to have dissociated herself from the society that keeps her alive.

She should think of the hundreds of people who go to work each day to grow her food and keep her taps flowing with clean water, her home supplied with electricity, manufacture her clothes and toiletries, take away her rubbish and process her sewage.

I didn’t click the link, I’m just addressing your question.

I guess, for me only, I believe that to be true. I chose an underpaid, under appreciated and difficult career because I derive meaning from it. I was a pretty shitty employee when working ‘normal’ minimum wage jobs, ‘minimum wage minimum effort’ kind of mindset. I didn’t enjoy a second of it or do anything at an above average standard, I was just working to survive. In my career however I put in maximum effort and often work unpaid in my spare time because I love it and enjoy helping people.

As a PP mentioned I would also never do work I believe to be unethical, this has meant leaving jobs within my career that didn’t work for me.

Ive had jobs which gave me pleasure such as being an academic, tutoring and selling antiques but I would give them up in a moment if I won lotto. Some people derive their sense of self worth from the job they do. Good luck to them. I derive my sense of self worth from inside myself.

Yes. Unless without that particular job, you can’t pay your bills. Employees who feel their work is meaningful are more effective at their jobs, according to research. Sometimes, you don’t have the luxury of work that’s meaningful, you just work to survive. If you’re alert and lucky, you may eventually find meaningful work. If you don’t, it’s important to find areas of meaning in your private life.

I worked for a B corp for a while. It was just posturing. They did work for a tobacco company and billed it a different way so they didn’t have to declare it on the B corp return. Disgraceful.

I think the reality is that many of us work to pay our bills, not to find 'meaning'.

That can be done outside work.

However I would not want to work for an unethical, dodgy company or individual and of course you are likely to be a better employee if you enjoy what you do.

I’m lucky that I like my job, but ultimately I do it for the money.

What industries I’d be prepared to work in if I lost my job would depend on how desperate I was. Preferably not tobacco, not gambling, nothing involving cruelty to animals or pushing gender ideology, but if it was a choice between doing that or not being able to keep my cat & pay my bills, I don’t know.

she is lucky to have a choice.
There are many meaningless mind numbing jobs that people are forced to do to feed themselves and their families if people looked outside the bubble of the Western welfare society.

“I believe working in retail to be below me”. Just say it Gigi, you entitled twat 😂

Surely all work is meaningful on some level because it serves a purpose - it provides some sort of service that needs to be done

It may not FEEL meaningful to serve coffee or scrub toilets or photocopy documents but… that stuff needs to happen

Work is worth doing so that you can earn a wage, pay your bills, and contribute to society (there is certainly something meaningful in the latter) but of course its a lot easier to go to work if you're happy doing the work, so finding something meaningful in it helps, or enjoying it, or liking the people you work with. Not necessary but helpful.