What does your work mean to you? Do you compartmentalize your life into ‘work’ and ‘living?’ Is your work only a means to an end, or do you find some measure of satisfaction in your job?
Frankl observed the various ways people related to work in the bigger scheme of finding meaning in their lives.
He differed with the notion that work defines the whole of one’s identify. He pointed out that life is made up of leisure time where people engage in meaningful activities or play meaningful roles as a family or community member. Admittedly, he says, you might be so exhausted at the end of the day that all you can do with your leisure time is crawl into bed. The employer in that situation is also living a meaningless life if his focus is so fixed on making more money that everything becomes a means to an end. His relationship to his workers is to squeeze them for more, and in his own life he forgets about what it’s all for.
The jobless person has his own difficulties. He experiences the emptiness of time as an inner emptiness. He doesn’t demand anything of himself and doesn’t think anything should be demanded of him. Such a person becomes apathetic and feels useless.
In contrast, there are those unemployed people who utilize their time well and create a full life for themselves of volunteering, listening to music, getting involved in organizations and adult education. As opposed to the ones who falsely identify their work with their life task, this group of the unemployed doesn’t equate paid work with a meaningful life.
Certain experiences can change the perspective of uselessness in unemployment. Frankl writes that one young man who was driven to despair by a long spell of unemployment came across a girl who was crying on a park bench. He approached her to ask what the matter was. She told him she was planning to commit suicide. He used all his powers of persuasion to talk her out of it, and succeeded. This gave him a moment of joy he had not experienced in a long time and yanked him out of his despair. (The Doctor and the Soul, p. 119-124)
There is a movement in the world that visualizes a new concept of work. The lines between work and play are blurred. In addition, the expression of who you are through your work brings together all the different aspects of who you are. Instead of trying to be like someone else, and instead of trying to find a niche where you can fit in, you create your own niche and work on your own terms. As a result, you put all of your passion into it and you give what you have to give to the world. You give of your unique genius.
How would Frankl have related to this trend? I imagine he would welcome the idea of developing your uniqueness and following your heart, which is prompting you to use your unique strengths and talents, which allow you to contribute in your own special way.
At the same time, even in the most ideal work situation possible, where you are putting all the aspects of who you are into the basket to create your own business, in an essential way you cannot equate work with meaning.
Work, like anything else in life is an opportunity to do something meaningful. We want to get paid for doing what we most enjoy doing and are best at, only so that we don’t have to worry about money and don’t have to spend time doing what we don’t like to do and are not very good at.
Yet, meaning in life is something all-encompassing, and it’s something you carry around with you wherever you go. If you manage to create a work situation that you love, you are truly blessed. But if you don’t bring that passion with you into your relationship with people and treat them with compassion, humility, tolerance and kindness, then something is very wrong. That’s the acid test of meaning.