Purpose

It's the catchphrase of human resources consultants de nos jours. In these days of staff shortages, when firms are having to compete with each other for a dwindling pool of employees, the notion of working for something other than money is increasingly important.

To recruit and retain the best, employers have to offer more than just money - there has to be an ulterior reason for people to want to work for them. It's a demographic thing too. There are many stereotypes about the Millennials generation - those who came of age around the turn of the century - some good, some bad. The charitable stereotypes suggest that Millennials want their work to bring about some social and environmental benefit. (The less charitable say that they have a sense of entitlement and are permanently dissatisfied.)

Firms these days publish their mission statements and corporate values; employees are less keen to work for someone whose mission is 'to make more profit for our shareholders' and more keen to work for an employer who wants 'to make a positive difference to mankind'.

The notion of 'bullshit jobs' has come to prominence thanks to a book of this title by Dave Graeber. There is nothing quite as soul destroying in the workplace as coming into the office each day and thinking 'my work literally has no sense, no purpose'.

People seek purpose at work. A worker in construction from bricklayer to project manager - can see a structure rising out of the earth, then filling with people. A healthcare worker can see patients getting better. Manufacturing has purpose - as long as the product is well-designed, well-made and sustainable. In general, we make too much, buy too much and waste too much. But despite stuffocation, we still need to be fed, clothed, housed and entertained. But so much office work - administrative paper-shuffling - has little effect and minimal outcome. It is here that the workers need to be convinced that their work does indeed have a purpose - if not, they will leave. Because in today's economy - they'll find something that does satisfy their higher-order need for a job that offers more than just money.

If purpose is needed in work, it's needed in our broader life too. Here, I have to stray into matters spiritual; whether you are religious or an atheist, your life can equally be meaningful or meaningless. You can dedicate your life to helping others, improving the world in millions of small ways. Satisfaction, joy indeed, from a job well done, a task completed, a smile of gratitude.

But for me - my purpose is to seek the purpose - the purpose for which the universe exists. It seems to me entirely inconceivable that all these rocks, these suns, galaxies, should be hurtling through space without a Purpose. And among all this matter, visible or not - awareness. Consciousness is there with us, as higher-order creatures upon our particular spinning rock, orbiting our particular star, for us to at least begin to attempt to make sense of it.

Everything needs a purpose; everything needs relevance.

This time last year:
Dreamscapy

This time three years ago:
Sad farewell to Lila the cat

This time four years ago:
Your papers are in order, Panie Dembinski!

This time six years ago:
Topiary garden by the Vistula

This time seven years ago:
Raymond's Treasure - a short story