Is your job meaningful or important?

I got a tattoo the other day. During my session, the artist and I spoke about how he likes his work. He told me he loves the flexibility, he loves getting into flow state, and he loves creating art that’s meaningful to people. 

This conversation got me thinking: where do many jobs fall on the graph of meaning and importance?

I’ve been graphing a lot of things in quadrants these days. Here’s another.

A tattoo artist’s work is meaningful, specifically to the person getting the tattoo. That said, it’s not important in the sense that nobody needs a tattoo, at least not urgently. This is why the artist told me he likes the flexibility. If he or his clients need to reschedule, it’s not a big deal. This leads to a low-stress environment.

A doctor’s work is meaningful, specifically to her patients and their communities. It’s also important to people. It’s often essential that it gets done at the crucial moment in order to save someone’s life, or keep them from suffering. This can create a high-stress, high-pressure environment.

An investment banker’s work isn’t personally meaningful to anyone. But it is important to people, in the sense that their retirements, weddings, and financial security depends on it. Transactions and trades need to happen fast. Any negligence can be catastrophic for people. This is a high-stress environment for brokers. 

A fast food worker’s job is not inherently meaningful, and it’s not particularly important. Sure, people have to eat, but if the drive-thru is closed, or the ice cream machine is broken*, it’s not a big deal. Customer expectations can lead to stress, but as my friend who works in hospitality says, “it’s lunch and dinner, not life and death.” 

For the record, just because a job isn’t inherently “meaningful,” doesn’t meant mean you can’t make the job meaningful. 

Where does your job fall on this graph? Do you find yourself wanting to trend toward a different corner? Why is that? 

Thanks for thinking with me today. 

*It’s not broken… we know it’s not broken.