Things go better when you realize that work is a sacred thing. We’ve all had times when we are mailing it in, and while the paychecks keep coming the worst part of mailing it is this- what it does to you. But work – of all kinds – really matters to people. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to find meaning in their work.
The meaning of work is often found in the struggle and sometimes in the joy. In the second professional job that I ever had, my day ended at 3 a.m. the day after I was supposed to leave the place. Not because anyone else was demanding that, but because I cared. Believe it or not, I was working in a small company that made both hardware and software for an end-to-end solution, back in the days when such companies existed. I was a software development manager. I loved the culture of the place. I was leaving to go to business school in California, and I figured I wouldn’t be back, so I wanted to get everything on my plate done that I knew I was able to do. I finished at 3 a.m. and walked out through the factory that was in the back of the building, with tears in my eyes because I knew I would miss the place.
Some people always “know” what they want to do with their lives. I have a friend who always wanted to be a doctor, became very good and successful doctor, and as far as I know never looked back or thought about doing anything else.
I was never one of those people.
Other people “discover” an organization with a great purpose, or at least one that is taking off like a rocket ship to the moon, and stay for the whole ride. Their mission is defined for them because they landed in a place that clearly had one.
I was never one of those people either.
I wandered around more. I took new jobs when I learned 90% of what I could in my current job, when I found what the new company did interesting, when I thought I could add some value to the place, and when I needed a paycheck. It was only after I showed up at the place, got to know everybody, and actually understood better how I could help that I ever felt a sense of mission. That sense of mission was always deeply connected to the people I was working with, and especially the people who were working for me. After a while I figured out that good leadership really mattered to people, made a difference in their actual lives, and that if I just avoided being a bad leader, I had a chance to stand out as a decent one.
The English novelist J.R. Tolkien said, “Not all those who wander are lost.”
It’s great to work at a place that has a clear mission, one that demonstrably makes the world a better place. But in the real life of work, sometimes the mission has to be unearthed rather than handed out to you. You get to know the people and the place. Someone, maybe you, has a life crisis and you learn how compassionate and supportive people can be. Or the business runs into a crisis that forces everyone to pull together and put their oar in the water and row in the same direction. Or you figure out there is something the organization needs and you are the best person to do it. There are no aha moments, but the place grows on you. It means more than a paycheck now.
I’ve finished ten marathons and I can assure you that in at least half of them I had no clue why I was there at the starting line. But somewhere in those 26.2 miles, often late in the race, I learned why.
I’m troubled by the level of cultural hostility in America these days. I can’t go to Starbucks and get a coffee without running into how angry people are. I’m fine with people having different political and cultural beliefs that I do, but I’m not okay with the tone and incivility of the conversations.
I am neither an economist or a political scientist, so I don’t know all the reasons for this cultural hostility. But one of them is that people, especially people without college degrees, are having trouble finding meaningful work. And as hard as it is sometimes to show up for work every day, the data are clear that meaningful work makes people’s overall lives better. If you’re interested in proof of that, the economist Isabel Sawhill just wrote a great book called The Forgotten Americans, An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation.
Most of us, myself included, would not do exactly the same thing if we won the lottery. But that doesn’t mean we are wise. Meaningful work adds purpose and structure to our lives, in addition to financial rewards.
In my spare time, and I am grateful to have some, I’m in a group that is reading a biography of each U.S. President starting with Washington. My favorite biography so far is Militant Sprit by James Traub, which is about John Quincy Adams. Adams is rated as an average President, at best. He lived much of his life in the shadow of his famous father, and he lacked the common touch to connect with everyday people. But after his presidency, instead of retiring he served in the House of Representatives and became the leading elected official opposing slavery in the 1830s and 1840s. Adams turned out to be perfectly suited for this role, since he was a great orator and utterly unafraid of making enemies. He received many assassination threats, all of which he ignored.
In February 1848, at age 80, Adams suffered a massive stroke on the House floor as he rose to oppose legislation honoring the Mexican-American War, a war that he vehemently resisted because he viewed it as an attempt to extend slavery. He died two days later in the Capitol Building.
His last words were, “This is the last of earth. I am content.”
In other words, Adams died working.
Work is sacred.
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