Meaningful Work

The Meaning of “Meaningful”

Meaningful work signifies something of value. We may have varying opinions of the value of meaningful work relative to other valuable things, but we can agree that something in the work itself is obviously valuable to one who desires it and that it is also valuable to one who claims to have it (if it were not, it would be meaningless to claim to have it). Alternatively, work can have meaning without signifying something of value. All work signifies something (or many things); for example, submitting a trade order signifies the intent to trade, drawing a blueprint signifies the plan of a building that may be built, hauling away waste in a dump truck signifies that that waste will rest someplace else, and so on. Work means something in the life of every worker (an unpleasant necessity, a pleasant distraction, a way to earn a living, a chance to be productive), but not every meaning signifies something meaningful. The trader may have a passion for playing the bond market game, derive satisfaction from forging relationships with customers, or regard work as instrumental to the intrinsically important role of financially supporting a family; the architect may appreciate design, construction, or the interplay of art and engineering; the truck driver may enjoy working with a team, accomplishing a complex and socially beneficial cleanup task, or operating heavy machinery. Which of these meanings is meaningful is at least partially a matter of an individual's will and ability to make work meaningful regarding that individual's self-interest and perception. Nozick associates meaningful work with individual self-esteem and says it includes the chance to apply our abilities to a project we consider to be valuable to an overall objective that we consider in carrying out our particular tasks. According to this subjective conception, the aim of meaningful work is individual fulfillment, or self-realization.

Of course, work that is subjectively meaningful is not often wholly within the control of the individual. The capability to engage in work that satisfies our individual objectives and talents, at least for any sustained period of time, depends in part on market conditions and associated demand for such work, as well as the organizational conditions under which we work. To the extent that our ability to pursue self-realization through work can be promoted or impaired by social institutions, whether of the public or private sector, we may ask whether there are practical, moral requirements on those institutions to provide conditions within which meaningful work can be meaningfully pursued and practiced—for example, free choice to enter, honest communication, fair and respectful treatment, intellectual challenge, considerable independence to determine work methods, democratic participation in decision making, moral development, due process and justice, nonpaternalism, and fair compensation. This conception of meaningful work thus concerns the alleged objective obligations of institutions to preserve conditions under which meaningful work is possible, that is, where individuals are reasonably capable of pursuing their meaningful work interests.

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