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What gives you a sense of meaning in your work?

Louisa Baczor

According to David Graeber, many people have pointless jobs which exist merely to serve unnecessary bureaucratic processes.

Have you ever reflected on your own work, and what it is about it specifically that creates (or inhibits) meaning for you?

How can we create more meaning for other people in their work?

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  • Hullo everyone - I'm a new (student) member to CIPD and the forums.

    My question for David Graeber is... why did he feel he needed a carpenter? Putting up shelves isn't specialist work, yet it sounds like the entire department spent more time demanding a specialist than it would have spent them to learn how to fix the problem safely. The carpenter's role should have been as mentor, to provide safety equipment, knowledge and inspection.

    As for Louisa's question about meaningful work: this is something I thought a lot about when I left my last job. I think "meaning" as your describing is about sehnsucht - that vague feeling of longing for something more. For me, I care about supporting others. So anything where I'm contributing to improving collaboration, transparency and fairness gives me a sense of meaning.

    To feel happy in a job, an employee needs: independence; variation in tasks; a sense of task completion; to feel they're positively contributing; constructive feedback; and to feel they are treated fairly. These are areas where HR can really help.
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  • Hullo everyone - I'm a new (student) member to CIPD and the forums.

    My question for David Graeber is... why did he feel he needed a carpenter? Putting up shelves isn't specialist work, yet it sounds like the entire department spent more time demanding a specialist than it would have spent them to learn how to fix the problem safely. The carpenter's role should have been as mentor, to provide safety equipment, knowledge and inspection.

    As for Louisa's question about meaningful work: this is something I thought a lot about when I left my last job. I think "meaning" as your describing is about sehnsucht - that vague feeling of longing for something more. For me, I care about supporting others. So anything where I'm contributing to improving collaboration, transparency and fairness gives me a sense of meaning.

    To feel happy in a job, an employee needs: independence; variation in tasks; a sense of task completion; to feel they're positively contributing; constructive feedback; and to feel they are treated fairly. These are areas where HR can really help.
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