The mythology of meaningful work

I think all of us who are employed maintain some narrative practice of explaining what we do to others.

Working for NPR, I get to talk about public radio stations and producers, how NPR has gone through some budget tightening, how radio is cooler than tv.

But at some point, conversations usually get a little more personal. “Do you like what you do?” “Could you see yourself doing this for a while.” “What do you want to do down the road.”

These questions require a little more elaboration and self disclosure. At some point, I have to use a few more brain cells to decide what to say.

‘It’s okay. I like the people. I believe in the organization. I am hoping to move up. I eventually want to work for company xyz doing abc.’

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In any event, I’m fascinated by work and meaning and how narrative functions in this space, bridging, reinforcing, and/or alienating.

Maybe because we all spend so much time working, it is depressing to think that work wouldn’t express a personal interest and compliment some internal wellspring of meaning.

I’m starting to see how narrative can be leveraged to symbolically render work more meaningful, especially if the reality of work is not all that meaningful.

Maybe, on some level, it’s an example of a symbol insulating us from the reality.

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I sometimes find that I have internalized pressure to make my job sound more interesting than it is.

On some levels, my job really is not all that interesting.

I have had some conversations with friends about this recently so I would be curious what people think. The closer I am with people, the more our job conversations quickly uncover what I wouldn’t consider the apex of meaningful human activity…

Do people feel pressure to stitch together a myth about how jobs are personally meaningful – for external and/or internal use?

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For some visual context, here are some cool photos capturing work.

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All of this just makes me realize there are way more interesting things to talk about than work…

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