When Life Meaning is in Our Work

If asked,

• What about your life do you currently find meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying?  
• What keeps you going and why?

how would you answer? would work come to mind?

Of more than 2,500 Americans who responded to these questions in a 2021 survey, 17% mentioned work.  

I was curious what they meant by "meaning." A 45-year-old said that work made her feel “more complete.” For a 66-year-old teacher, meaningful work was tied to meaning in others (“that one enlightened student”). And agriculture work for a 24-year-old was fulfilling because of something bigger than him (“a smarter, more sustainable future”).  

A sense of meaning can be deeply felt and evoke a deep connectedness to others, the planet, and/or the future. Less appreciated is that a sense of meaning can correlate with mental and physical well-being.

If and when work can be a source of completeness or deeply felt connection with others and the world, what happens when it’s suddenly, out of the blue, threatened?

Imagine that:

• A group of employees suddenly gets an email from HR with a buyout offer: resign with 7 months of pay and benefits, or stay and take a chance with aggressive cost cutting measures,
• They’re given seven working days to decide,
• The group is 2 million employees,   
• 17% of them could’ve felt that work was the source of meaning in their lives (like in the 2021 survey), and
• That would be 340,000 employees. 

Putting myself among them, I could imagine feeling betrayed, confused, anxious, and enraged. I could imagine feeling a blow to the core of who I am.

On the other hand, if I were not among the 17% who find life meaning in work, I’d imagine that the sudden threat of job loss would still be deeply painful. But not devastating.  

The point is not where we find meaning in our lives. But that we do.

In the 2021 survey, larger proportions of respondents mentioned family (49%) and friends (20%) than work. Smaller proportions cited faith, nature, pets, and other sources of life meaning.

Our frenetic daily demands don’t permit space for reflection about much of anything. Yet, meaning and purpose are profoundly powerful ingredients for living life to the fullest. Set an intention to think about meaning in your life. How does work fit? what about your finances? For inspiration about meaning and purpose, consider one of these reads: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning or Clayton Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life?