spend 47 hours a week working. While
figures can vary between studies and
countries, it is clear that many of us spend
much of our time working, whether we are
passionately dedicated to our jobs or
robotically carrying out tasks.
However, on the other hand, Jobs
overlooked the fact that it’s possible to find
meaning in jobs we may not think we love.
For me, the first step to finding meaning at
work is to be mindful of our expectations.
Amy Wrzesniewski, a professor of
organisational behaviour at Yale
University, has been studying a system to
help you recognise how you expect to think
of work: as a job, a career, or a calling.
If you tune into yourself, you can
describe your work orientation and find
ways to gain greater job satisfaction. Ask
yourself why you are doing the work. Is it
because of the pay cheque, or with what
Wrzesniewski calls a “job orientation”? If
so, great: There is value in self-reliance.
Are you working at your job because it’s a
stepping-stone in your career—and thus
have a “career orientation”? Acknowledging
this may create emotional freedom through
your honesty. Finally, are you doing your
work because it is your passion, or with a
“calling orientation”? If so, celebrate the
fact that, for you, meaning is in the doing.
- Set a daily intention,
and reshape it every day.
Try approaching your work with a deep,
authentic intention you locate at your core.
For instance, before a meeting or
significant phone call, ask yourself, “What
do I want from this encounter? Do I want
to negotiate more time off? Do I want to
facilitate resolution? Do I want to emerge
the victor in a debate?” This will help you
identify that which is in accord with your
values.
Maybe your intention is to approach
every person with whom you interact with
kindness. A lot of people have told me that
they try to use every encounter at work as a
time to really listen to others. Doing so
diminishes the difficulty of whatever task is
at hand, and instead allows these people to
find meaning from being respectful.
If your intention is to communicate with
others, maybe you can make composing an
email your daily mindfulness practice.
Carefully think through the language you
are using, and take three breaths after each
paragraph you write. When you’re done
writing the email, reread it, imagining you
are the recipient, and consider its
emotional impact.- Pay attention fully to
whatever is in front of you.
Our hyper-connected digital culture not
only celebrates multitasking, but virtually
makes it impossible not to multitask at all
moments of the day. Why? Multitasking is,
in effect, another way of describing the
state of distraction. When we “multitask”,
we aren’t actually doing multiple things at
once; we are quickly shuffling between
multiple things, and engaging in what
Linda Stone, a former tech executive who
is now a thought leader on the human
relationship to technology, calls
“continuous partial attention”. The term
basically refers to those times when we
scatter our attention across many
assignments and activities, leaving us
feeling not only unproductive but also
unfulfilled.
The answer to the epidemic of
continuous partial attention is simple,
though not necessarily easy: Concentrate
on one thing at a time, even if it means
taking several breaks while working on the
task—and make your break a true one and
not time spent checking off another item on
your to-do list. The breaks are to step back
from the activity we might be too caught up in.
If we simply breathe, we can then
renew our activity with more perspective.
“One-pointed attention” restores our
energy, because we have more interest and
curiosity about our experience, and more
concentration for the work we are doing.
It also dispels boredom because things are
more interesting when we actually notice
them. The end result is that our sense of
satisfaction on the job increases because
we are connecting fully to what is
happening rather than just waiting for
something better to come along.- Emphasise the importance
of compassion, connection,
and communication.
A great way to find meaning at work
is through connection with coworkers,
customers, or clients instead of with
our job title or position. Over time, we’ve
been losing these valuable connections,
which can negatively impact our job
satisfaction and performance, according
to recent research.
Just after Real Happiness at Work came
out, I had an inspiring conversation with a
woman who fields customer complaints.
When I asked her about her job, she said,
to my surprise, that she loves everybody
who calls. “By the time they get to me,” she
explained, “I know they’ve talked to several
people and are immensely frustrated. I
acknowledge that I can’t always help them,
but I’m always honest.” Above all, this
woman committed herself to really caring
about each person she spoke to and to
being respectful instead of annoyed.
As she told me about her job, this
woman was radiant. Who knows how far
that is from the job of her dreams, but she
brought something to it—a personal
connection to others—that made it
meaningful to her. Meaning is a lofty and
expansive concept, but is most accessible to
us when we can be available to it in each
moment. That’s where mindfulness and
compassion come in, providing us with a
sense of connection with our experiences,
with ourselves and others, and with our
values and our sense of purpose. And
that connection is portable, available
to us whenever we need it—at work and
beyond.
Sharon Salzberg is is a meditation teacher,
New York Times best-selling author, and a
co-founder of Insight Meditation Society in
Barre, Massachusetts. 43april 2016yogajournal.com.au