Many answers pop into our minds as we ponder the question above: good pay, promotions, friendly colleagues, making a difference, flexible hours. How we rank these factors really depends on each of our definitions of success and satisfaction.

The ways in which society measures success and satisfaction in the workplace are more narrowly financial or status-driven: good pay, promotions, growing responsibility; the hallmarks of a successful career. And these societal valuations inevitably affect our personal ones.

Accordingly, something that many of us probably don't immediately consider as instrumental to our feeling good about work is meaning. When the concept is tabled, perhaps we nod and proclaim that actually, meaning is indeed of the utmost importance; but did we think of it before then? 

For people that work in the charity, development or medical sectors, or the artistic world, perhaps it was an immediate thought. Meaning - whether in terms of making a difference or imbuing a piece of work with symbolic import - is explicitly at the heart of what you do at work every day. Even still, there is a more personally psychological brand of meaning that may have escaped even some of you, and this is what Dan Ariely's TED talk is about. (click on the image to watch)

Through the use of simple and illuminating experiments, Dan forces us to consider the ways in which personal attachment to our work, and the knowledge of the fruits of our labour are being valued, are central to both our performance and our satisfaction and happiness in the workplace.

As we seek to nail down the formula that guarantees our feeling good about our work, Dan encourages us to turn our gazes inwards for a few moments - a direct about-turn from the direction society usually has us searching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aH2Ppjpcho

Sam Firman

www.filtered.com