Excerpt:
Clay Routledge, an existential psychologist and director at the Human Flourishing Lab, said that an employer’s top priority should be making the work itself more meaningful for its staff, whatever their role or level. “A notable strategy for doing this is recognizing people’s contribution to the company at every level. Managers should think about how their team members serve their customers or clients, and they can do that explicitly in job descriptions, company communications, and evaluations,” he said.
When nothing changes, people start looking for the exits. A 2019 study found self-employed workers — who get to be more in control of their time and work — viewed their work as more useful to society than traditionally employed workers did. That could explain why more people are setting out on their own. From 2020 to 2023, the number of self-employed workers in the US rose by about 400,000. And Americans are filing 59% more applications to start businesses than before 2020.
“If you look at the paths people go down to pursue meaning, some of it relates to differences in personality: Some people are really career-ambitious, and their sense of self is very much tied to that,” Routledge said. For others, their ambitions may lie elsewhere: creative endeavors, family, or community work, for instance. Working for yourself gives you more flexibility to pursue the things you actually find meaningful, Routledge said. It also allows you to ditch a toxic office environment.
Read the full article at Business Insider.
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