I'm all for profit, wished I had more. And I'm very into meaningful work. The problem is found in the collision of profit motive and meaningful work.
The problem rears its ugly head when the profit motive starts taking greed steroids. Meaningful work exits when this happens. I wish this scenario was rare, but you and I know it's not. The crazy part is profit and meaningful work can coexist and thrive.
In many ways we live in a tale of two cities. One city is a place where management (entry to executive) is focused on profit, expenses, quarterly news, and the like. The other city is a place where the employee is looking and longing for meaningful work. They're not immature children or idealistic dreamers, just people who understand that life is a limited time offer and they desire to make the most of the time given. This is the reality and the reason we're in such a mess, relating to how we do and live out our work.
So why are the two at odds?
- At some point we put a higher value on things (money, possessions, titles) versus people and the lives they lead. And what is valued most, is what will get the lion-share of attention.
- Greed and power can be just as addicting as any drug. The person is overtaken and refuses to give it up.
- We started telling our children to fit in a box. See standardized testing as a measure of intelligence, for example. We've all but poisoned their ability to recognize meaningful work.
- Wall Street (for those entities in the publically traded realm).
- The absence of courageous leadership inside the halls of management.
I've always been about people-for better or worse, so I'm not writing to offer solutions on how to fix corporate America. In the spirit of giving you a place to start, a place to begin discovering where meaningful work may be found, I want you to take a look at the following video clip: