Can’t Get No Job Satisfaction

Do you get a case of the Mondays on a weekly basis? If you dread the work week and live only for the weekend, it may be that you do not feel a sense of purpose or gain satisfaction from your job. While it’s possible there may be other factors at hand such as stress management issues, personal conflicts, etc. many people who do not enjoy the work they do find that their jobs seem meaningless. A sense of purpose and connection to your community – including your team at work – are crucial to job satisfaction. According to the economist Rutger Bregman, “there are a great many jobs that contribute nothing to society.” He believes this is due to the way societies have ideologically structured work around the concept of the hierarchal relationship between employer and employee. He believes a better way to define work is “something that adds value to society” and stresses that the economy should measure value far beyond GDP.

We are living through the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Like previous industrial revolutions, jobs will change and even the concept of work will need to be reimagined and redefined. This is an exciting time because it means our very ideas about work may completely shift in a positive direction. One thing that businesses need to consider is how they are contributing to society. According to Bregman, certain jobs such as doctors, nurses, educators, police and firefighters, librarians, etc. provide a built-in sense of purpose. These jobs provide services that directly and positively affect other people in their communities. Job recruitment and staffing also has a built-in sense of purpose because finding the right people for the right jobs is very rewarding. The question is, how can all businesses make certain the jobs they create also be similarly rewarding? If this is possible there would be less of what Anand Giridharadas calls the misallocation of talent.

If we imagine work as a calling rather than simply an exchange of capital, then both individuals and businesses will build a work structure based not on obligation but on purpose. Individuals living life to their fullest potential, with the ability to contribute meaningfully to their teams, families, and communities, often create industry- and world-changing innovations that better humanity. Isn’t that supposed to be the goal of business? This isn’t to downplay the importance of earning money. But money, while necessary to survive, does not necessarily give us a sense of purpose or satisfaction. So businesses need to think beyond the current mindset, as meaningless jobs will not be sustainable with the coming AI revolution.

Humans gain a sense of purpose from their connections – whether with other people, animals, or the environment. The beauty within all of us is that our authentic self is infinite and if we’re paying attention to it, it guides us in the direction of a fulfilling life. If people are not able to follow this authentic path, they feel mired down or adrift. The same can be said about business itself as an entity. If the company does not improve society in some way, what is its real purpose? What are its contributions to humanity or the world? Is it solely for the sake of wealth accumulation? If so, perhaps this isn’t a company that will ever give any of its employees a true sense of purpose.

In order to reimagine work, here are a few places both businesses and individuals need to re-conceptualize:

·        Purpose: What is the purpose of the work you are doing? What are you contributing to society that improves it? Do you feel that your job provides personal satisfaction? Do you feel that the business’ purpose provides you with a sense of meaning?

·        Measuring Success: How do you define and measure success? Do you take into account other factors besides your contribution to the national GDP or wealth accumulation? Are you defining success too narrowly or too broadly? How does your team define success? Is this definition in opposition with your employees’ individual definitions of success?

·        Alignment: How aligned are your values with the company’s values? Do you feel the need to compartmentalize your work life from your personal life? If you could work for a company that did align with your values, what would it look like?  

As we venture further into a future of work where machine learning and artificial intelligence will be able to accomplish a good amount of the tasks humans currently do, we need to think deeply about the purpose of work itself. 58 million new jobs are expected to be created by AI by 2022. This is the perfect time for businesses to embed a higher purpose in the core definitions of these new jobs as they are being defined. That way we ensure they are aligned for greater satisfaction and work FOR people as they work these new jobs. It is our responsibility to build the world we want to live in, one in which all of humanity is thriving and we are contributing to the betterment of the world and its inhabitants on a daily basis. Work should be our calling to do so.