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journey of meaning at work, The

Group Facilitation, Spring 2003 by Epps, John

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Alternative One: There is no meaning at work Work is a necessary evil, and those who practice it seriously are deluded Companies are built on greed alone, so attempts to find a noble purpose are illusory diversions from the real business of making money. Mission statements that project a worthwhile aim of doing business attempt to delude staff into increasing their efforts to enrich shareholders. Many non-governmental organizations and quite a few in government and educational institutions share this view of business!

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Many people in business also hold this viewpoint, and Dilbert cartoons relentlessly portray it to the considerable delight of workers. Letters to cartoonist Scott Adams from readers frequently outstrip the bleakness of the comics. The point Adams makes is this: since work is meaningless, do as little as possible, and use your energy to have fun.3

Alternative Two: Meaning at work equals happiness, and is a given. If you don't find it every day in every way, something is wrong with you. You need periodic hyping up through rallies or cheerleading sessions to reactivate waning enthusiasm and reignite personal passion. Workplaces should abound with contests, rewards and recognition to keep people happy.

Strong advocates of this alternative can be found in most sales-- based organizations. Insurance companies and direct selling organizations are especially adept practitioners of this understanding of the journey of meaning at work. If ever you lose touch with your perception of meaning, the firm, through its structures and through your peers, lets you know that you'd better shape up. Performance appraisals and counseling sessions often do this job.

Alternative Three: Meaning at work can be discovered, but the quest for meaning is endless and difficult. After seeing the other alternatives, the approach offered here as a third option should be welcome. It won't be. This paper offers the proposition that disillusionment is an authentic and inescapable phase in the ongoing search for meaning. The journey has three distinct phases. Surely when you experience disillusionment, something is wrong, right? No, this experience simply means you've reached Phase Two of the journey, and your source of meaning has shifted. It's not the endpoint, but it's a phase with its own integrity. People often move beyond disillusionment into Phase Three, but they never get over it.

The experience of disillusionment leaves you with an irrevocable sense of the futility of your work. No product, opportunity, service, or skill can shake the certainty that it all comes to naught. After going through Phase Two, you can offer insights that make Scott Adams seem hopelessly naive. He points only to stupidity as the source of difficulties. You are no longer upset or surprised when someone points out compromises, failures, self-seeking, backbiting, cheating, or even corruption and criminality going on at work. Still, you move through Phase Two into a state where that awareness is subsumed under a more vivid consciousness of the contribution of your work to the civilizing process.

journey of meaning at work, The

Group Facilitation, Spring 2003 by Epps, John

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