IF YOU EXPECT your job to give your life meaning, you鈥檙e setting yourself up for failure. There was a time when a job was just an economic transaction: Someone paid you for your labor and that enabled you to live and support your family. But for a variety of reasons, many workers today expect more. They want purpose and meaning from their work. And if they don鈥檛 find it, some are leaving jobs, or just putting in minimal effort for their paycheck.
This is a costly mistake, though I understand why it鈥檚 tempting. I love my job and find it incredibly rewarding. I wish the same for everyone else. But I didn鈥檛 always find my work especially meaningful. Job satisfaction doesn鈥檛 come easy; it鈥檚 something you achieve over time as you gain skills and status in your field.
My best advice to you if you鈥檙e looking for a job is to just go for the money 鈥 or the chance to learn something new, or the work-life balance you need 鈥 and steer clear of any employer that touts a mission or promises to give your life purpose. Such promises lead to disappointment, more than anything. If that sounds craven, then the better solution is to adjust your definition of what you find meaningful.
Employers have been forced to compete for workers as recent labor shortages grew more intense. To help their recruiting, several consulting firms surveyed workers to find out what they鈥檙e looking for in a job. And those surveys show it鈥檚 not about the money; workers today are . would take a 23% pay cut for a job they find meaningful.
There are a lot of different ways people define 鈥渕eaning鈥 in their jobs, but a popular answer is work that serves a higher purpose. It鈥檚 not surprising that the need , some of whom have begun to brag on social media about 鈥渜uietly quitting鈥 鈥 which is to say, they don鈥檛 deem worthy of additional effort. Outgoing Whole Foods CEO John Mackey that younger people weren鈥檛 working as hard because they鈥檙e demanding meaningful jobs before they鈥檝e earned them.
That perceived 鈥渓ack of meaning鈥 isn鈥檛 because the current younger generation is more idealistic than its predecessors, but because early-career jobs involve lots of grunt work that often feels pointless. Developing skills can be an unpleasant process, full of boring tasks that are needed to gain mastery, and with inevitable failures that feel frustrating and humiliating at times. It鈥檚 hard to find meaning while you鈥檙e endlessly slugging back coffee or staying up nights obsessing about the font on someone else鈥檚 PowerPoint presentation. But this is how you learn skills like customer service, time management, and negotiating workplace culture.
So early jobs are not that different. What may have changed is the expectation that every job is supposed to be meaningful in a particular save-the-world way.
Those new expectations are a reflection of a world that has changed, especially recently. Working from home means less time kibitzing with colleagues, which leaves more time to question what the point of it all is. Work also feels less meaningful if you don鈥檛 feel like part of a team because you don鈥檛 see yourself helping your coworkers. A tight labor market also means people can be a little fussier about what job they choose to do.
There are also bigger cultural shifts that have been brewing for decades. MBAs don鈥檛 want to be Gordon Gekko anymore, (at least, during his philanthropy stage). Many tech firms promise workers a mission to make the world a better place, and that sounds compelling. And all over the country, many people are less connected to their communities or churches, and now their job has to fill that void.
This is not just economically inefficient; jobs with lofty missions and promises of spiritual fulfillment often lead to frustration. In reality, a big part of job satisfaction comes from feeling like there is a path for advancement. That鈥檚 one reason the military (where keeping up morale is especially critical) has such rigid and clear paths forward. If you work at a company where the mission is earning a profit, the metrics to advance are clear.
When the mission is fuzzier, advancement becomes more arbitrary, and that can be a morale killer. Take the online shoe store Zappos, which once promised to provide purpose 鈥 to be the kind of place you鈥檇 even work for free. Eventually the didn鈥檛 have a sense of what success meant or what they needed to do to advance.
Consider this: While McKinsey鈥檚 survey found workers want to find meaning in their jobs, the industry with one of the highest rates of attrition is non-profits.
Employers need to make hard choices to stay in business. That may mean working with a customer who doesn鈥檛 fit your moral standards, or avoiding contentious political issues. It may mean moving some jobs abroad where labor is cheaper. These choices are understandable when the mission is profit. But if the mission is making the world a better place, every employee will have different ideas of what鈥檚 acceptable (especially if you take less money and are working very long hours in service of this mission). Then, it鈥檚 hard not to take everything personally, which leads to a much more toxic culture.
Most of us spend a large share of our lives at work. It鈥檚 important to feel a sense of purpose and to be motivated by what we do. But what few people will tell you is that meaning doesn鈥檛 come from a mission to change the world. People feel valuable when they can apply their skills to solve problems. Sometimes that satisfaction come from solving the world鈥檚 big problems, but more often it鈥檚 conquering the little ones. People who report high levels of job satisfaction often aren鈥檛 working at cool startups or s 鈥 you鈥檒l find them at , like truck driving.听 They do their jobs well, apply their skills and are paid accordingly 鈥 it鈥檚 not complicated.
All jobs are meaningful. If someone pays you to do something it has value. And if a desire for a job with a big mission that will give your life meaning prevents you from working hard or staying in a job long enough to develop skills, you will not only earn less money, you will never find what you are looking for.
BLOOMBERG OPINION
