Meaning Of Work

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Are all kinds of work meaningful?

Humans work every day. From cleaning their homes to attending official meetings, it seems that work is inseparable from our daily lives. According to the MOW project, the top 3 definitions of work are “something you do to get paid”, “a task”, and “something that adds value” . Work means differently among people , it may be simply as a paid employment or it may be the act of spending efforts for achieving a goal. You may wonder if all kinds of work are meaningful. The following paragraphs will have an exploration into this question.

What is meaningful work? Michael F. Steger, an associate professor of counseling psychology and applied social psychology at Colorado State University, once said “being able to …show more content…

According to Huffington Post, about 90% of people find that the work of airline reservation agent meaningless . This meets some of the criteria above such as the lack of variety and challenges. Work alienation also relates to meaninglessness . Extensive labor division in industries has caused work alienation. Large auto manufacturers such as Toyota hires workers to perform one specific task such as attaching a tire onto the car. This kind of repetitive and monotonous act results in alienation of the worker from working, therefore making the job meaningless for most …show more content…

Job crafting is a pioneering method created by Amy Wrzesniewski, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Management. There are 3 core parts namely “tasks alteration”, “reformulation of social interactions” and “fine-tuning of the perception of the purpose of work”. For “tasks alteration”, one can add emphasis to the tasks which they find meaningful during their routine jobs. For instance, a nurse can allocate more time to educate patients about personal hygiene, making the work more meaningful. The “change in social interactions” is best observed at school. Friendships can be established on top of the teacher-student relationship. Closer relationships allow teachers to know more about their students, figuring out problems as early as possible. This achieves the aim of nurturing the next generation. Thus, their work will be more meaningful. “Changing perception” is a form of cognitive job crafting, which aims to alter how people think about their tasks, relationships and jobs as a whole. For example, zoo keepers can perceive their duty as protecting animals rather than cleaning cages in zoo. Success in job crafting gives people greater enjoyment from what they do at work. Also it allows people to approach their work in a more enthusiastic manner. Lastly, their skills will be improved so as personal development

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