The Work-Engagement Crisis

The work-engagement crisis

The amount of job satisfaction and engagement track with whether someone can find meaning in their work. The American Psychological Association highlights findings that people who find their jobs meaningful are more engaged, show up to work more, and are healthier.

It has been found that staff retention and job satisfaction were higher at companies where employees felt their jobs had meaning.

Factors identified such as bad managers, how connected you are to coworkers, and whether your employer is providing a public good significantly influence whether your job feels meaningful. A poor work environment comes to bear on whether work feels useful.

Often, a lack of meaning on the job simply comes down to bad management. It was found that those who felt "respected and encouraged by management" were less likely to report their work as useless and that those who felt their jobs were useful said that they were able to contribute their own ideas at work.

Other factors, like having enough time to get things done, being able to influence important decisions, and approving of the direction of the company also correlated with the feeling that a job was meaningful. On the flip side, people felt their jobs were useless when they didn't get the chance to use and develop their skills.

When nothing changes, people start looking for the exits. It has been found that self-employed workers who get to be more in control of their time and work viewed their work as more useful to society than traditionally employed workers did.

If you look at the paths people go down to pursue meaning, some of it relates to differences in personality: Some people are really career-ambitious, and their sense of self is very much tied to that. However, for others, their ambitions may lie elsewhere: creative endeavors, family, or community work, for instance. Working for yourself gives you more flexibility to pursue the things you actually find meaningful.

Breaking away to create your own path to create self-meaning isn't a bad thing.

Reference

Lipson, M. America's crisis of meaningless work. Business Insider.