When was the last time you were genuinely excited about showing up at work on a Monday? For most of the people it was the first day at work that got you excited. To put it bluntly, many people feel that a lot of what they do at work is downright drudgery. They feel regularly disengaged, disconnected, and discouraged by their jobs. Maybe you’re among them.
Gallup, the polling and consulting organization, has been tracking workplace engagement levels for almost twenty years, and reported in June 2024 about stagnant global engagement, declining wellbeing, and specific challenges faced by African workers, including stress and loneliness.
Any workplace that can promise and deliver on joy will get the best talent. Never underestimate how much it might mean to someone if you can offer them a renewed sense of purpose, possibility, vitality, excitement, or fun in their work. One of the ways to get employees excited is about creating special projects that brighten someone’s day.
Most people, when they interview for a job, feel a rush of possibility, a flicker of excitement about what they can do and accomplish in their new role. Years later—or sometimes within just months—the reality of the job turns out to be nothing like what they imagined.
It is imperative to every employer to bring that sense of possibility back to those who work with and around us. Most People don’t feel their work matters, which in turn leaves them feeling alienated and disengaged. That should be a serious practical concern at all levels of management, because the same studies suggest that employees who derive meaning from their work are more than three times as likely to stay with their current employers than those who don’t.
The concern should never be limited to Managers. Finding meaning in your work should be your personal responsibility. Finding meaning in our work is an important human need, more important than happiness, in many respects. There is a difference between a happy life and a meaningful life. Many people can be happy just by satisfying their own needs and desires. To lead a meaningful life, however, you need to do things for others, often by setting aside your own desires and sometimes even your own short-term happiness.
Do work that matters and make work fun again.
