When the mission is fuzzier, advancement becomes more arbitrary, and that can be a morale killer. Take the online shoe store Zappos, which once promised to provide purpose—to be the kind of place you’d even work for free. Eventually the culture became toxic because employees didn't have a sense of what success meant or what they needed to do to advance.
Consider this: While McKinsey’s survey found workers want to find meaning in their jobs, the industry with one of the highest rates of attrition is non-profits.
Employers need to make hard choices to stay in business. That may mean working with a customer who doesn’t fit your moral standards, or avoiding contentious political issues. It may mean moving some jobs abroad where labor is cheaper. These choices are understandable when the mission is profit. But if the mission is making the world a better place, every employee will have different ideas of what’s acceptable (especially if you take less money and are working very long hours in service of this mission). Then, it’s hard not to take everything personally, which leads to a much more toxic culture.
Most of us spend a large share of our lives at work. It’s important to feel a sense of purpose and to be motivated by what we do. But what few people will tell you is that meaning doesn’t come from a mission to change the world. People feel valuable when they can apply their skills to solve problems. Sometimes that satisfaction comes from solving the world’s big problems, but more often it’s conquering the little ones. People who report high levels of job satisfaction often aren’t working at cool startups or NGOs—you'll find them at all kinds of jobs, like truck driving. They do their jobs well, apply their skills and are paid accordingly—it’s not complicated.
All jobs are meaningful. If someone pays you to do something, it has value. And if a desire for a job with a big mission that will give your life meaning prevents you from working hard or staying in a job long enough to develop skills, you will not only earn less money, you will never find what you are looking for.
Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.