Working against the flow of traffic: beware, the road is closed

We need to put an end to the archaic idea that work and pleasure, like oil and vinegar, cannot mix. Indeed, it is now increasingly possible in our Western countries to combine passion and employment, or at least to enjoy going to work.

But more than that, a job we enjoy is a job in which we find meaning. Faced with the health crisis, we have returned to certain ideologies that go beyond pure capitalism. For example, some economics students no longer believe in what they are studying, and prefer to learn a craft or manual trade.

Meaning, in all its meanings - orientation, significance, coherence - translates into energy, motivation and pleasure in what we do. The question of meaning is closely linked to the human condition, and its quest is increasingly manifested at work, where today, rightly or wrongly, a large part of our desires and needs for self-fulfilment, contribution and usefulness are embodied.

There are three symptomatic situations in which employees wonder whether their job has lost its meaning.

1. The feeling of uselessness

This deadly feeling of being a micro (or even weak) link in a gigantic chain where you can see neither the beginning nor the end. Who and what is my work good for and what will be done with it afterwards? This is an often unconscious but ever-present question for us human beings, who have a fundamental need to know why we do what we do. The feeling of uselessness and of not seeing our contribution to the company is a very frequent trigger for the desire to change jobs, because it quickly proves to be unbearable.

2. Ethical suffering

When the gap widens between the tasks we have to perform, their nature, their role, their results and the moral assessment we make of them, the loss of meaning is not far off. The same applies to the development of a company which, as it grows, for example, can drift away from its raison d'être to the benefit of its shareholders.

3. Lack of a sense of a job well done

Because management is more interested in profit than in work. Despite oceans of literature on the atavistic laziness of employees, accompanied by the usual clichés about the civil servant in them, it is increasingly clear that the real concern of employees is to be able to do their job well, in line with their values, in order to maintain their self-respect, which is essential to the feeling of job satisfaction.

These three situations are decisive in asking you whether it might not be time to change profession. In the end, the feeling of a loss of meaning in your current job, as long as it is not related to your working conditions but to the reality of the job, is the only indicator of the need to change jobs that doesn't need to be explored for a long time. Unlike bad relationships, there's not much you have to try first in your original profession to remedy the situation. Sometimes, an amicable divorce from one's profession is much preferable.