Candace

Talmadge

Read Candace's bio and previous columns

May 12, 2008

Meaning in Life Apart From Work 

With apologies to French philosopher Rene Descartes, the one consistent mantra of American society seems to be I work, therefore, I am. 

When we first meet an adult, we always ask, “What do you do for a living?” On initially greeting a child, we invariably query, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” 

As a nation, we cannot separate doing (activity/employment) from being (personality/character), so much so that we rank our fellow Americans on the social hierarchy according to occupation. Attorneys have a much higher status than garbage collectors, even if their work may be similar (from a philosophical viewpoint). 

Employment/occupation thus is inextricably linked to others’ perception of us and to our own self-image. That is one intrinsic reason, apart from the brutal economic impact, that downsizing, re-sizing, outsourcing, off-shoring, and workforce globalization has had such a profoundly unsettling impact on Americans’ psyches. When corporations take away our jobs, they rob us of our sense of self along with our paychecks and economic security. 

In casting off American workers out of short-sighted greed, however, big business inadvertently has done us a favor in at least two ways. First, four decades of employment upheaval has prompted many more of us to take our economic fates in our own hands. Previous columns profiled enterprising Lone Star state residents who have done just that, establishing their own terms for gainful employment. This is a promising trend with great potential benefits to the individuals involved and to our society. As much as possible, let’s encourage and support these economic pioneers with our dollars. 

The second favor? Losing the primary outward source of meaning in our lives reminds us, painfully, that ultimately we cannot derive meaning or purpose via our economic activities. The meaning/purpose of our existence comes from somewhere else. 

“Meaning really belongs to the individual, and it’s not up to organizations to offer meaning,” says Stephen Overell, associate director of The Work Foundation, a London-based think tank that analyzes workplace and employment issues. Overell recently published a provocative essay about the concept of “meaningful” work and its origins and implications. 

“People have massive expectations for work that are probably impossible to meet from work,” Overell continues. The very demand for meaning in an occupation “is what distinguishes work in 2008 from work in 1908,” he says. “In previous ages, fulfillment and meaning were derived from friends, family, the arts, the church, and so forth. The idea of meaningful work is peculiar to our age.” 

While Overell’s analysis focuses strictly on organized business, his insights apply to organizations across the board. Think about it. Every institution that once guided us in our lives and relationships to others and even to ourselves has been unmasked as insufficient at best if not downright malevolent. 

Maybe that’s because the institutions are static while we are undergoing major transitions in much the same way that the butterfly emerges from the moth within the chrysalis. We are awakening to a new, inward definition of self/life purpose. In order to take wing in our new life and way of being, we are busy shedding the previous social organizations/structures that we now find far too confining and limiting to be helpful or even merely relevant to our lives. 

The revolution cannot be televised because it is invisible.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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