“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.” Malcolm Gladwell

Meaningful work. What is it? Do you have it? If not, how do you find it?

I have this conversation weekly, sometimes daily, with IU alumni who seek out career coaching with the Career and Professional Development team. Conversations about meaningful work often start with phrases like, “I don’t feel like my work makes a difference,” “I’m good at my job, but I am not passionate about it,” or “My work doesn’t leave a lasting difference on the world.”

Reports show that only 13 to 30 percent of the US workforce is engaged in work. The rest are disengaged to actively disengaged. Where would you rank yourself in relationship to your work? How can you make your work more meaningful?

Finding personally meaningful work starts with knowing your work values and seeking a work environment that supports those values. Work values are the aspects of your work experience that make you happy at work. They may be intrinsic (i.e. independence, honesty, equality), work environment-focused (i.e. flexibility, comfortable income, exciting), work content-related (i.e. research, organization, public content), or relational (supportive, diversity, recognition). If you have that disgruntled, restless feeling at work, it usually means your work values are not aligning with your work reality.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, defined meaningful work as work that is complex, autonomous, and has a clear relationship between effort and reward. Meaningful work engages our minds and rewards our efforts. Meaningful work plays to our strengths. It capitalizes on our talents. What are your strengths? Where do you shine? If your work feels like a prison sentence, perhaps your work is not playing to your strengths.

So, how do you move from disengaged to engaged at work? Start by taking stock of your career values. What is not being met in your current job? After examining your values, consider your strengths. Are you able to engage your strengths in a complex and autonomous way?

When you are ready to move from reflection to action, determine if you can increase your work satisfaction with your current employer. Do you need a fresh start in a new environment or are you overlooking an opportunity to reinvent your current reality? Can you re-align your work environment with your work values or take on new projects that allow you to flex your strengths? Identify solutions and methods for implementation .

Want to dig deeper into meaningful work? Take advantage of your member benefit complimentary annual career coaching session with the Career and Professional team today.