Assuming we work for 40 hours per week and for 40 Years which is roughly coming to be 80000 hours. It is more than you spend time with our child. For any parent , child is so important that we try to do everything for them but we give more time to our work. Spending quality time with our child is so much pleasure and seeing them grow is such a treat that it always fills us with all the good brain chemicals and teaches us so many things. On the other side at work where we spend significant amount of time , if lacks meaning may fill you all the bad brain chemical and become toxic. But what is meaning at work?? “It is an understanding of Why behind the work we are doing or The Purpose of work we are doing”…We normally are focused most of time towards the smaller task which has been assigned and keep working on it without understanding the bigger picture. If we don’t understand the bigger picture, it will be impossible to have clarity on alignment of individual and Organization Purpose.

Imagine you are walking on the road and see 2 sweepers cleaning the road . You ask 1st sweeper- what are doing? He looks frustrated, stares at you angrily and says “Cant you see I am brooming on the road? You go to another person and ask the same question-What are you doing ?. He looks at you smiles and says I am trying to make my city beautiful and clean. Who do you think will press the snooze button in the morning and wont be excited to go for work?

Today we are living in a very different world compared to few decades back when there was no exploration of meaning at work but rather our parents meaning was accidental outcome of whatever full time employment they had, hard work work they did. They knew their duties very clearly and were married couple with one partner working and other managing home they crafted together. They had community both at work and personal life and mostly common connection. Their meaning were crafted in the the world they lived and this phenomena was defined as Accidental meaning hypothesis by Paul millerds in his book “The Pathless path” where he says Meaning is the accidental outcome of a path of full-time employment, “hard work,” married couples with one partner working, and a house, that aligned with a certain way of living that provided meaning for millions of people for a period of 30-50 years. Today we are aiming for the same things (House, Community and work) but it is very difficult to find the meaningful path may be because of the distraction and disruption we have in the extrinsic world .

There are 2 aspects of meaning at work – Either you get a meaningful work or you find meaning at work . Earlier one being you are clear about your passion and you choose or get work which boost your passion and bigger Purpose which is not very common. Later one being very common and we are confused about our passion & Purpose and more we are confused, more we are running behind We don’t have even time to explore about it with the type of busy schedule we have today in our professional life . So what do we do ?

Before we go ahead lets understand there are 3 Facts about meaning @ work.

• Different people look for different types of meaning.
• Different workplace provide different meaning
• At different times meaning may change for the same person depending on situation.

For different people at different times, Meaning may change and below are few elements for Organization to craft meaning for employees
Bigger Purpose – This is one of the most important element of engagement at work. It means that if one is clear about the bigger purpose of the work they do and if that is in alignment with individual passion or the problem they want to solve then there is excellent engagement at work and it leads to long term relationship with work. Organization should craft their Purpose and build their strategy around it so that every employee can connect and align with it.

Self awareness (Learning & Achievement) – This is another very important factor when an employee gets opportunity to learn about work and themselves . When they are recognized with achievements even for small wins ,leads to greater satisfaction and make all the differences in how they feel and perform. The power of achievement is very fundamental to human and managers needs to understand it to boost motivation.
Authority – Authority is another motivator which leads to autonomy and have the power to change as per your will. Daniel Pink in his book Drive defined three basic elements of Motivation which are Purpose, Autonomy and Mastery . Autonomy is urge to direct our lives our won way and if you have authority to do it , you realize your worth. Human enjoys authority and wants to change things as per their own pedagogy and if they get the autonomy ,certainly leads to enjoy their work. Leaders uses authority to create space for others to cultivate meaning at work.
Community & Connection – Another factor which provides meaning is the type of connection they tend to create and community they uplift with their work. Relationship is one the most important element for happy and meaningful life and many researches have already concluded this. so it is important for organization to understand it and create the space for better human connection and opportunity to uplift the community.
Authenticity – Authenticity is another one which means a lot for people and they tend to look for work where they can be authentic and be themselves. Organization must create platform where everyone has opportunity to follow their passion being authentic. Zappos, an online shoe and apparel retailer has one of the values as “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness” which actually means to be uniquely yourself is if it is little weird. Zappos is famous for its amazing organizational culture and letting the people be authentic.

On the other hand as an individual we all can create meaning in whatever job we have and below are not the exhaustive list.

• Make a journal and write atleast every weekend about only good things you are getting in your job.
• Understand the bigger picture where you are contributing – Purpose of Organization and see beyond the bottom line.
• Invest in some beautiful relationship with your colleague- Invest with empathy and no expectation
• If you are leader create space for your teammates so that they can make their work meaningful
• Find out 20% of your total time for your own passion exploring new things which you like to explore ..if you are working for 40 hrs a week(either employee or entrepreneur) then 8 hrs to be spent in you …start with 2 hours and gradually increase ..it is possible 🙂

If we get the meaningful job the nothing like it and its rare but if not not there are ways where we can craft meaning at work and so it is worth to mention that Spend less time in finding meaningful job but more time in creating your job meaningful.