MEANINGFUL
WORK
THE FOUR Ss
OF MEANINGFUL WORK
BY : NEIL PASRICHA
NEVER RETIRE .
I believe retirement is a false concept based on assumptions that are no longer true . Retirement at age 65 was invented when average lifespan was 67 , and there ’ s a big reason the healthiest societies in the world have no word for retirement .
So what ’ s the solution ? Keep working .
And make sure whatever you ’ re doing includes the four Ss of meaningful work :
S — Social : We are the most social mammals on the planet for a reason . According to Stumbling on Happiness by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert , our social relationships have a greater effect on our happiness than our income , religion , gender , or even health . So what does a good workplace foster ? Team breakfasts . CEO AMAs . Lunch walking groups . Work sports leagues . If these are missing , start one .
S — Structure : There are 168 hours in a week : 56 for sleep ( eight hours a night if you can get it ), 56 for work ( including commuting and extra work at home , etc .), and 56 for your passion .
On structure , there are two things to point out . One , work helps create and pay for your third bucket . The fun bucket . The passion bucket . And two , if everyone in this structure has a third bucket , what can each person bring in from outside of work ? Can the word nerd start a book club ? Can the hospital volunteer start a company volunteer program ? Can the late-night DJ plan the Christmas party ? Work structure should allow and create outside work passions to be big parts of our lives .
S — Stimulation : Always learning something new . In every job you have it means ensuring the steepest possible learning curves between “ value giving ” and “ value getting .” Examples to make sure this happens are things such as maximum two years in roles , job sharing or job trades , regular development sessions , and quarterly growth meetings with one- and two-up managers . Making sure you can always say yes to the question “ Am I learning a lot and adding a lot ?” If your answer is tilted one way it means you ’ re giving something else up .
S — Story : Feeling as though you ’ re part of something bigger than yourself . Ensuring the company ’ s mission and higher level purpose captures the heart - and bringing it to life regularly through customer stories , printing it on walls , and talking about it to open or close meetings . There ’ s a reason that
Medtronic , the medical devices company famous for popularizing the pacemaker , has family members of patients read letters at company meetings . How would you feel about your job if an 11-year-old girl thanked you for giving her five extra years of memories with her father ? At Facebook you ’ re connecting the world . At Wikipedia you ’ re giving the world the sum of human knowledge for free . At your town paper , you ’ re increasing community . What ’ s your workplace story ?
So , I say never give up work . Meaningful work . Work you love . Because you ’ ll be giving up the Social , Structure , Stimulation , and Story you get every day from being there . Forget the money .
You ’ ll lose the four Ss , and they are much more important .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neil Pasricha is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Happiness Equation , and The Book of Awesome series , which has been published in 10 countries , spent over five years on bestseller lists , and sold over a million copies . Pasricha is a Harvard MBA , one of the most popular TED speakers of all time , and after 10 years heading Leadership Development at Walmart he now serves as Director of The Institute for Global Happiness . He has dedicated the past 15 years of his life to developing leaders , creating global programs inside the world ’ s largest companies and speaking to hundreds of thousands of people around the globe . He lives in Toronto with his wife and sons .
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