{"id":72618,"date":"2024-04-26T00:17:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T04:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=72618"},"modified":"2024-04-26T00:17:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T04:17:28","slug":"what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/","title":{"rendered":"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Work is an inescapable feature of the modern world. Most of us, except for a lucky few, spend a\u00a0significant portion<\/a>\u00a0of our lives working. If this is the case, we may as well try and make it meaningful. In a\u00a02019 report<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

But what exactly makes a particular job an instance of \u201cmeaningful work\u201d? Is it just any sort of work people happen to believe is meaningful? Or is it a job with certain objective features?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The gods knew what they were doing with this punishment \u2013 anyone who has spent time doing Sisyphean tasks in their work will understand how soul crushing they can be.<\/p>\n

Fyodor Dostoevsky certainly understood this. Partly informed by his own experience in a labour camp, the novelist\u00a0wrote that<\/a>: \u201cIf one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely \u2026 all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

People may believe such Sisyphean tasks are meaningful (maybe this is the only thing that makes it bearable), but is this belief alone enough to make it so? Many philosophers don\u2019t think so. Instead, they argue that for an activity to be meaningful, it must also contribute to some goal or end that connects the person doing it to something larger than themselves. As philosopher\u00a0Susan Wolf<\/a>\u00a0puts it, meaning requires seeing \u201cone\u2019s life as valuable in a way that can be recognised from a point of view other than one\u2019s own\u201d.<\/p>\n

In my own\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0into the meaning of work, I argue that for a job to be meaningful, it requires some objective feature to connect the worker with a larger framework that extends beyond themselves.<\/p>\n

This feature, I suggest, is social contribution: are you making a positive difference with your work? Is your work useful, and does it help others carry out their lives? Confidently answering \u201cyes\u201d to these questions places your work in the larger context of society.<\/p>\n

Sisyphean work clearly fails against this standard of social contribution, and so cannot be meaningful. There are, at least\u00a0according to some studies<\/a>, a surprising number of jobs like this in modern economies. The recent penchant for\u00a0\u201clazy girl jobs\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cfake email jobs\u201d<\/a>\u00a0suggest that some young people may actually be seeking out such work as a way to maintain a healthier work-life balance and separate their sense of self from their job.<\/p>\n

Do no harm<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Another implication of my view is that work cannot be meaningful if it not only fails to help others but actually harms them. Examples might be marketing intentionally defective products, or working in sectors that contribute to the environmental crisis and all its affiliated harms. The phenomenon of\u00a0\u201cclimate quitting\u201d<\/a>\u00a0(leaving an employer for environmental reasons) could be seen as the result of people deciding to quit out of a desire for meaningful work.<\/p>\n

These examples suggest that a job will not automatically be meaningful just because it contributes to the economy. While market value and social value sometimes overlap (for example, working in a supermarket helps put food in people\u2019s stomachs), these two kinds of value can come apart.<\/p>\n

We must think about who benefits from our work, whether their social position means this benefit comes at the cost of others being harmed, and whether there are likely to be unintended negative consequences from our work.<\/p>\n

Meaningful work within organisations<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

As a result, workers can easily become\u00a0disconnected and alienated<\/a>\u00a0from the social contribution contained in their work, thereby preventing it from being meaningful for them. Take the following from an\u00a0auditor of a large bank<\/a>: \u201cMost people at the bank didn\u2019t know why they were doing what they were doing. They would say that they are only supposed to log into this one system \u2026 and type certain things in. They didn\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue here isn\u2019t that the workers aren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0company boards<\/a>, or even turning the company into a\u00a0worker cooperative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a>\u00a0suggests 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.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Caleb Althorpe is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Work is an inescapable feature of the modern world. Most of us, except for a lucky few, spend a\u00a0significant portion\u00a0of our lives working. If this is the case, we may as well try and make it meaningful. In a\u00a02019 report, 82% of employees reported that it is important to have a purpose in their work […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[434925],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-72618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-meaningful-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Work is an inescapable feature of the modern world. Most of us, except for a lucky few, spend a\u00a0significant portion\u00a0of our lives working. If this is the case, we may as well try and make it meaningful. In a\u00a02019 report, 82% of employees reported that it is important to have a purpose in their work […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-26T04:17:28+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Work-meaning.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-26T04:17:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":992,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Work-meaning.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"meaningful work\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Lifestyle\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/\",\"name\":\"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Work-meaning.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-26T04:17:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Work-meaning.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/Work-meaning.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":383},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"Work is an inescapable feature of the modern world. Most of us, except for a lucky few, spend a\u00a0significant portion\u00a0of our lives working. If this is the case, we may as well try and make it meaningful. In a\u00a02019 report, 82% of employees reported that it is important to have a purpose in their work […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2024-04-26T04:17:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Work-meaning.jpeg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view","datePublished":"2024-04-26T04:17:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/"},"wordCount":992,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Work-meaning.jpeg","keywords":["meaningful work"],"articleSection":["Lifestyle"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/","name":"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Work-meaning.jpeg","datePublished":"2024-04-26T04:17:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Work-meaning.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Work-meaning.jpeg","width":680,"height":383},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/what-is-meaningful-work-a-philosophers-view\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What is meaningful work? A philosopher\u2019s view"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72622,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72618\/revisions\/72622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72618"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=72618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}