It may be having become obsessed over pay, status, or career that is pushing a different work-related trend: finding meaningful work.
There is nothing against it. Providing employees with work they find meaningful will help these people connect more with their work and the organization they are doing it for.
But that might not be what every employee can embrace, can afford, or is looking for.
This seems to be why President Barack Obama took a deeper look at what work actually looks like today. He explored work in different sectors and took a deep look at what individual experiences with work looked like.
It’s a look that makes one think about ideas that are being pushed by our culture as a means to keep the existing system in place while hiding what reality in truth looks like for a larger majority.
But Obama also adds a thought about the push towards meaning in work in itself. While there is great pleasure in doing the type of work one enjoys doing and finds meaningful it still might not be the best solution to live a happy life. A palliative nurse once recorded the most common regrets of the dying and her findings pointed at meaning in life more than meaning in work.
It’s worth keeping that in mind, especially while doing meaningful work.