As we navigate this final quarter of 2020, I’ve been considering how our state of being impacts our work satisfaction. Most of us have shifted how we work this year. For some of us, the process of shifting exposed some underlying mismatches between how we have been working and how we prefer to work.
When considering the work situations of altruistic folks, one of the biggest disconnects I notice is between doing useful work and doing meaningful work. Especially when doing a service-based job, it can seem very achievable to align usefulness and meaningfulness. In practice, accomplishing both at the same time can be quite a challenge. This is particularly true when one is employed, as most people are.
When all is said and done, other individuals can tell you how useful you are to them. Only you can assess how meaningful what you are doing is to you. Here are a few tips for maintaining the appropriate mix.
Be clear on what makes your work useful to you.
For most people, the main reason to work is to pay bills and to maintain benefits. Work that is truly meaningful and leaves you broke and uninsured is not serving its essential purpose. Especially if you have a ton of school debt, financial compensation may be the entirety of your list of concerns about work.
Once those basic essentials are covered, I invite you to consider what other uses your job has for you. There are many ways a job situation can be useful to you besides a steady paycheck.
What skills are you obtaining that will serve you in the future? What flexibility does this job afford you to be able to engage in other meaningful activities? What connections are you making that can help you advance your career?
Be clear on what makes work meaningful to you.
Because I coach a bunch of bleeding heart types, people usually tell me they find meaning in helping people. Not for nothing, that is mad generic. Lacking specificity on the manner in which you like to help people can set you up to be very useful and kind of miserable.
For instance, I like making genuine connections with people that allow them to access their internal and external resources to be the best version of themselves. Making superficial connections in order to offer generic advice isn’t the most meaningful way for me to spend my work time, even if I am highly compensated. General usefulness detached from personal meaning is not satisfying long-term for most healers.
What are the specific parts of your work that bring you joy? What makes you smile when you think of doing it? What do you get lost in doing when you are working, even if it’s not technically a deliverable?
Be clear on how you are actually useful to the people you are serving.
For those employed in helping and healing jobs, there are two groups to whom you must be useful – those you serve and those who pay you. It is easy to think your usefulness to one group is valued the same by the other. It is important to understand they are different.
Your clients/patients want you to help them with their issues and problems. They often appreciate the over the top attention that comes from working with an overachiever. On the other hand, your employers may be more interested in competence than excellence if that excellence is affecting your efficiency and their bottom line. That is a harsh reality you need to accept sooner than later if it is true for you.
What do your employers value most from you? What do your patients/clients value most from you? How do your values align with each group you serve?
Be clear on how to integrate your usefulness to others with your sense of meaning.
Most altruistic types I meet are most satisfied when you feel like your capability is being used to its fullest potential in the endeavors that are meaningful to you. Especially for many in today’s healthcare environment, the level of meaning you desire is not found by working exclusively in direct patient care. You feel both stifled in your potential and overwhelmed by your daily to do list. Ironically, the busyness you encounter by adding more useful clinical work in the search for meaning becomes an obstacle to doing what is truly meaningful to you.
Useful people burn out because you do ALL the things in hopes of enjoying at least one of them. It often serves you better to get less busy so you can have more meaning, and thus actually be more useful with the endeavors you choose.
How can you deliver the level of quality care you expect from yourself while complying with company standards for productivity? How do your expectations of your work align with those of the company? How has being useful impeded your ability to do meaningful work?
When we feel like the work we do is meaningful, it provides a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. Lots of people stay in miserable jobs because they assume (rightly) there is no perfect job. The catch is when the work itself is fulfilling and/or allows for a life that is fulfilling outside of work, it makes the less than perfect stuff easier to get past. Instead of simply accepting a useful and tolerable job, I invite you to seek work that contributes to genuine meaning and satisfaction in your life. When your job supports your positive state of being, that positive state of being improves your work, especially during a pandemic. That is a truth employees and employers alike need to take to heart this year.
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Dr Jattu Senesie is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, certified success coach, physician satisfaction specialist and speaker. She blogs about issues of self care and well-being in an effort to help her fellow altruistic high achievers find satisfaction in their success as early in their careers as possible.
