What is meaningful work? A philosopher’s view
- Written by Caleb Althorpe, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin
Work is an inescapable feature of the modern world. Most of us, except for a lucky few, spend a significant portion[1] of our lives working. If this is the case, we may as well try and make it meaningful. In a 2019 report[2], 82% of employees reported that it is important to have a purpose in their work and that creating meaningful work was one of their top priorities.
But what exactly makes a particular job an instance of “meaningful work”? Is it just any sort of work people happen to believe is meaningful? Or is it a job with certain objective features?
To answer these questions, we might first think about what makes work meaningless. Take the Greek myth of Sisyphus, whose punishment for misbehaviour was to roll a boulder up a mountain only for it to roll back down just before he reached the top. He had to walk back down and start again, repeating the process forever. Today, we describe laborious and futile tasks as Sisyphean.
The gods knew what they were doing with this punishment – anyone who has spent time doing Sisyphean tasks in their work will understand how soul crushing they can be.
Fyodor Dostoevsky certainly understood this. Partly informed by his own experience in a labour camp, the novelist wrote that[3]: “If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely … all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.”
Meaningful work within organisations
On top of just asking whether some jobs positively contribute to others, I also suggest that work will struggle to be meaningful when workers do not experience their contributions as palpable. In other words, can you see the contribution you are making in your work, or do you feel abstract and removed?
This is especially relevant to people with jobs in complex companies or large organisations. Most companies do not give ordinary workers influence over big decisions that affect how the company operates in society (such as decisions about what product to produce or service to offer, which markets it operates in and so on). Instead, this influence is limited to managers and executives.
As a result, workers can easily become disconnected and alienated[13] from the social contribution contained in their work, thereby preventing it from being meaningful for them. Take the following from an auditor of a large bank[14]: “Most people at the bank didn’t know why they were doing what they were doing. They would say that they are only supposed to log into this one system … and type certain things in. They didn’t know why.”
The issue here isn’t that the workers aren’t contributing (banks have an important social function after all), but that in their day-to-day work they are completely removed from how they are contributing.
One way to make more work more meaningful for more people would be to think about how large organisations could more democratically involve workers in these sorts of decisions. This could mean giving workers veto powers over strategic decisions, having worker representatives on company boards[15], or even turning the company into a worker cooperative[16].
Research[17] suggests democratic arrangements like these can help people find a sense of meaning in their work by connecting them more closely to the positive outcomes that result from it.
A fan of cutting-edge debate and putting ideas at the centre of public life? Then you won’t want to miss HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest ideas and music festival this spring. Returning to Hay-on-Wye from May 24-27, the event will convene world-leading thinkers and Nobel prize-winners including David Petraeus, Roger Penrose, Daniel Dennett, Amy Chua, Peter Singer and Sophie Scott-Brown. A remedy to online echo-chambers, the festival unites speakers across disciplines to chart tangible solutions to the crises of our era.
And don’t miss The Conversation’s live event at the festival on Sunday, May 26 with Avery Anapol delving into whether “meaningful work” exists in today’s age. We’re delighted to offer 20% off tickets with the code CONVO24. Get discounted tickets here[18].
References
- ^ significant portion (www.independent.co.uk)
- ^ 2019 report (www.mckinsey.com)
- ^ wrote that (www.oxfordreference.com)
- ^ full line-up of speakers (howthelightgetsin.org)
- ^ Susan Wolf (press.princeton.edu)
- ^ research (www.pdcnet.org)
- ^ according to some studies (www.penguin.co.uk)
- ^ “lazy girl jobs” (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ “fake email jobs” (www.bustle.com)
- ^ This philosophical theory can help you stop taking criticism personally (theconversation.com)
- ^ “climate quitting” (theconversation.com)
- ^ Dean Drobot/Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
- ^ disconnected and alienated (journals.sagepub.com)
- ^ auditor of a large bank (www.penguin.co.uk)
- ^ company boards (en.dgb.de)
- ^ worker cooperative (www.mondragon-corporation.com)
- ^ Research (doi.org)
- ^ Get discounted tickets here (howthelightgetsin.org)
Read more https://theconversation.com/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view-226569
