The meaning of a job

On the way home from work I listened to an interview of people who’d been out of work for over a year and then landed horrible jobs but were happy to have them. A guy who’d been making over $100k as a manager took a $10/hour job taking customer service calls. A branch manager at a bank took a $10/hour data entry job. The jobs didn’t really cover many bills, but these men were happy to have them and their wives equally so. Why? Work has meaning. It gave them a chance to make a contribution.

This was surprising to me. Data entry or answering customer service calls as a source of meaning?

Similarly, a few weeks ago I listened to a story on The Feminine Mystique and there was a line about women wanting to work outside the home because they needed to do something that had meaning. This wasn’t just surprising, it floored me. Most jobs are banal, and family life so rich. I know I said just a few posts ago that my children were the chief joy but not the meaning in my life. However, if I had to choose between my job and my children as a source of meaning it would be no contest. I’d drop the job and go charging home.

I can’t answer the question of why data entry or answering customer service calls or a career was a source of meaning for other people. But I might if I think really hard and am honest with myself be able to figure out what meaning my job has for me.

Everything about my job is great. I work for a great company, I have great colleagues, the content of what I do is interesting, I am able to be home for breakfast and dinner almost every single day, I have a nice office with lots of natural light, I get paid well. But meaning?

If you asked me why I work, my flip answer would be, “For money.” If you ask me why I went to business school, my flip answer would be, “Because I want to be a writer, and I figured I could make more money in business than waiting tables.” In short, my whole business persona has been about creating a situation where the “real” me can flourish. About affording a room of my own since I didn’t have a rich aunt to do that for me.

I could quit and write now. It would mean less travel, less yard help, fewer meals at fancy restaurants, but we could definitely pull it off and still live quite well. Yet I have not. So my flip answer is not the whole story.

Three separate questions emerge: one, what is the meaning of money? two, what is the meaning of a job? three, what is the meaning of work?

Let’s take the middle one first: What is the meaning of a job? The meaning of having a task to do, a place to do it, and people to do it with?

Plutarch found bricklaying to be meaningful; Spinoza, grinding lenses. I have found some meaning beyond just the money in starting Juice, in building up the AdSense/YouTube/DoubleClick teams, and in my current job. What is it, exactly?

It is about creating an environment in which I and the people around me can do our very best work and be our very best selves. Creating an environment in which people can find meaning as individuals and also collectively. It is about collective meaning as well as individual meaning. It is about collaboration to bring something out of the imagination and into the real world in a way that leaves the world better.

The problem with writing and not getting published is that I am just getting something out of my head and onto paper. The problem with getting published is that it’s just a form of conversation--so there’s some collaboration, but it’s lacking the physicality of say gardening. It’s still pretty much in the mental world, not in the “real” world.

The problem with treating a job as nothing more than a paycheck is that I miss the whole meaning part of it. And then I can’t find it in my writing. And I defer the writing until such time as I don’t have to work. Very easy for the money aspect of a job to take me into a deep dark spiral of meaninglessness.

What if I couldn’t have this job, if the only jobs available to me were say being a bank teller--a job I had once and hated? What would the meaning be then? It could be the same: a job needs to be done, done well, and done well with others. However, I think I’d try to get a job as a gardener instead...For me, a big part of finding meaning in work is to be able to do it joyously, and that means to do work I’m good at in an environment I can love with people I can love.