Voices
tions in pursuit of greater meaning. For example, hospital cleaners
who lack patient contact stepped
up to provide emotional support
to patients and their families, and
technology associates began volunteering for mentoring, teaching,
and training roles.
When people craft their jobs,
they become happier and more
effective. In an experiment at
Google, colleagues and I invited
salespeople and administrators to
spend 90 minutes doing the Job
Crafting Exercise — they mapped
out ways to make their tasks and
interactions more meaningful and
contribute more to others. Six
weeks later, their managers and
coworkers rated them as happier
and more effective. When they
developed new skills to support
more significant changes, the happiness and performance gains
lasted for at least six months.
Like all things in life, meaning can be pushed too far. As
the psychologist Brian Little
observes, if we turn our trivial
pursuits into magnificent obsessions, we gain meaning at the
price of manageability. When
the weight of the world is on our
shoulders, we place ourselves at
risk for burnout.
ADAM
GRANT
HUFFINGTON
02.09.14
Yet most people are facing the
opposite problem in their jobs,
of too little meaning rather than
too much. Against this backdrop, the chance to help others can be what makes our work
Like all things in
life, meaning can be
pushed too far. As the
psychologist Brian Little
observes, if we turn our
trivial pursuits into
magnificent obsessions,
we gain meaning at the
price of manageability.”
worthwhile. “Suffering ceases
to be suffering once it finds a
meaning,” wrote Viktor Frankl in
Man’s Search For Meaning. “B