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Mitchell Broughton

Philosophy 101

Dr. Veltman

April 24, 2019

Working to Live

Throughout the time frame of human existence, we have answered many questions that

provoke discussion and debate. However, there are ones that have yet to be definitively

answered, what is the meaning of life? What is our purpose for living? Why do we do what we

do? Leo Rosten, a well-known humorist and screen writer from the twentieth century, gave his

thought on these questions: “The purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to

be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that

you lived” (Rosten, 174). From this quote, we can derive two things. First, Rosten counters

those who practice Hedonism, where the meaning of life is to seek out pleasure. It also

provides that Rosten believes the true meaning of our lives comes from the attempt and

completion of work.

On a personal level, I agree with Rosten over hedonists like Epicurus. Living to seek

pleasure will not result in ultimate satisfaction. In the end, I feel that one can be satisfied by

looking back upon their life and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Pursuing pleasure at all

times will prevent humans from feeling true satisfaction because there will be no challenges

that need to be accomplished. In my experience, the times where I question how I live my life

only come about in the times where I’m not working, whether for a job, school, or community
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service. Work gives life its meaning. Humans were not destined to just sit and accept what

comes to them.

A problem occurs regarding the meaning of the term, work. Officially, the Oxford

University dictionary defines work as: “actively involving mental or physical effort done in order

to achieve a purpose or result.” Notice it does not mention anything about earning income,

only achieving a specific result. That being said, work is a very broad term that could include

anything from building houses for the homeless or selling illicit drugs. This discrepancy can be

moved passed by referencing the quote from Rosten, “It is to matter, to have it make some

difference that you lived.” That is where many philosophers use meaningful work to describe

the tasks that give life its meaning.

Dr. Andrea Veltman provides some dimensions that work must satisfy to be considered

as meaningful work. These guidelines help explain why work is meaningful to life:

“(1) Developing and exercising the worker’s human capabilities, especially insofar as this
expression meets with recognition and esteem; (2) Supporting virtues including self-
respect, honor, integrity, dignity, or pride; (3) Providing a personal purpose or serving a
genuinely useful purpose for others, and especially producing something of enduring
value; (4) or Integrating elements of a worker’s life, such as by building or reflecting
personal relationships and values or connecting a worker to an environmental or
relational context with which she deeply identifies.” (Veltman, 117).

It is important to note that Dr. Veltman states that not all meaningful work may meet these

dimensions. Meaningful work is therefore subjective, where an individual might consider their

work unimportant to themselves but provides meaning for others that are affected by said

work.

When discussing the first dimension, Dr. Veltman provides a broad scenario that

describes a worker receiving affirmation for exercising her skills. Every human has a unique set
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of skills, or capabilities as described in Veltman’s dimensions, that propel us into different work

roles in our society. It is not a secret that not everybody can do every job, humans have

become increasingly more specialized in terms of skill set as society progresses. Humans also

like to be appreciated for their work, gratification leads to a satisfactory feeling that they have

successfully completed their goal. Commendation goes a long way in terms of productivity and

motivation for workers. From a personal experience I can attest to the feeling of satisfaction

when I received affirmation from my customers. As a waiter at a family-friendly restaurant,

customer feedback was highly prioritized by my managers. After finishing their dining

experience, our bills had employee specific links printed at the bottom where customers can

anonymously leave feedback. When the responses came back with high remarks, not only was I

awarded with incentives by my employer, but I also was determined to get more positive

responses, which lead me to work harder and be the best that I could be in that role. It can also

be as simple as a thank you that can lead to a feeling of satisfaction, which adds meaning to

one’s work and thus one’s life.

There is an opposite end of this spectrum however. Everyone wants to earn respect,

and sometimes humans don’t get the praise and affirmation following their work. When that

takes place, individuals tend to lose satisfaction in their work and thus removing the

meaningfulness from their lives. I can personally confirm that negative feedback can disrupt

your overall flow of things. Going back to my restaurant experience, I’ve had guest that will be

so unsatisfied with their experience that they will get up and walk out without paying. Not only

is this a detrimental experience for servers because they lose tips (which are a significant
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source of income in that job setting) but it also does damage to their self esteem and thus their

satisfaction with their work.

In her second point, Dr. Veltman highlights some virtues that we seek through our work.

This can include but not limited to self-discipline, integrity, and pride. She then comments,

“Life appears impoverished and lacks excellence without moral and personal virtue,” which I

also wholeheartedly agree with (Veltman, 122). There is no universal law that demands

humans to work. Now, this day in age it is extremely hard to thrive without working for some

sort of income; but I would go on to say that for most people, satisfaction with their work

comes from the personal gains like those virtues that were previously mentioned. I will also go

on to say that this is the most important out of all the dimensions listed by Dr. Veltman.

Personal satisfaction and having pride in what you do is what gives life its meaning. In the end,

if an individual can look back on his or her life and can be proud of what they did, then nothing

else matters in my opinion. Not everybody has to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and

personal satisfaction allows those with lower level jobs to feel like their work has meaning. To

emphasize this even further, I took the opportunity to ask an employee that works at D-Hall if

she had pride in what she did for a living, her answer is the best source to amplify what Dr.

Veltman and I both agree on. She is a custodian and although she didn’t necessarily take pride

in her role, she explained how as a single mother she is working not for her, but for her son’s

future. She takes pride in being able to provide for her son, so that he can hopefully live a more

prosperous life than she has. With that personal gratification, her work gives her life meaning,

and it is no different for the millions of people that work in lower level positions.
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Dr. Veltman associates meaningfulness with purposefulness in her third dimension for

meaningful work. When an individual’s work serves a purpose, especially one that the worker

believes in themselves, it adds meaningfulness to their job and life. However, Veltman also

states that even if an individual doesn’t directly use what their work creates, they can still find

meaning if that work directly contributes to others (Veltman, 125). My experiences relate more

with the latter point and the barista example that she gives. Similar to a barista, as a server I do

not benefit from my company’s purpose at all. In fact, it does get challenging having to serve

freshly cooked meals to other people, all day long. In the end though, I know that my job gives

families and friends an enjoyable experience, one that I would enjoy if it was my own. Being

able to help people come together and appreciate the presence of one another around the

dinner table does at some meaning to my job. Overall, I agree with Dr. Veltman in saying that

finding a purpose to any job, no matter the skills required or the level of power, can add a

whole lot more meaning to one’s life.

In the final dimension, Dr. Veltman talks about how work can integrate elements of our

own lives, such as building relationships or attaching one’s work to a larger cause or effort.

Much like the previous dimension, Veltman provides this one to attach meaning to a person’s

work beyond the immediate benefit of their job. And for the most part it is true, now there are

more reasons why people work than just to complete a task. Through my entry level jobs, I

have made many good relationships with future friends and I even met my current girlfriend

while working as a lifeguard. Forming relationships like that in a work setting not only adds

meaning for going into work but creates connections for future job opportunities and contacts

down the road. The other aspect of this dimension is attaching one’s work to a greater cause
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for which our entire society can benefit from. In another job setting, the company I worked for

insulates homes and businesses around the state of Virginia. I obviously am not a home owner,

I do not receive benefit for insulating another person’s property. However, the purpose of my

work there ultimately helps in saving the environment, which is a larger cause that I take a lot

of pride in. When a building is well insulated, it allows that building to use less heat in the

winter and air conditioning in the summer, which in the end can literally reduce tons of

greenhouse gas emissions from being released in to our atmosphere. It allows me to assume a

bigger role than just a day laborer, it adds much more meaning to my work when I know I can

be a part of a large change for the betterment of our planet. If an individual can connect their

work with a greater cause that they are passionate for, then there is no question that

meaningful work will add to their life.

Wrapping this all together, the dimensions that Dr. Veltman laid out do not strictly

decide if one’s work is meaningful or not. Is all work meaningful? Going back to one of the first

paragraphs in this essay, I mentioned those who sell and produce illegal drugs. One could say

that a drug dealer can attach a few of those dimensions to their work. Dealing drugs can build

relationships and networks. It can raise a large amount of income which those dealers can use

to help provide for their struggling families or even the communities in which they live in, which

brings a feeling of pride to the dealer. Selling drugs can also come with affirmation of others,

which allows the dealers to keep doing what they do in order to satisfy the wants of his or her

client base. That is three out of the four dimensions that one could connect to drug dealing, but

I would be willing to bet that the majority of our society would not say that selling drugs is

considered meaningful work.

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In my opinion, a meaningful life is subjective and meaningful work is also subjective. I

also think that to decide if one’s work and life is in fact meaningful is the sole responsibility of

the individual. Our opinions of ourselves should be the only ones that matter. If a drug dealer

and a Peace Corps volunteer both think that their work adds meaning to their life, then so be it.

Profession shouldn’t dictate whether one’s life is more meaningful than another’s. It becomes

an internal question to answer, and my personal belief is that if an individual takes pride in

what they do it will add meaning to their life. Which partly answers the overarching question of

what is the meaning of life? The meaning of life is to do whatever the individual sees fit, and if

they can look back on it all in the end and feel a sense of satisfaction and no regret, then to

them their life has a meaning and a purpose.

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References

Rosten, Leo. “The Myths by Which We Live.” The Journal of General Education 17.3 (1965): 169-

178. Penn State University Press. Web. 21 Apr. 2019.

“What Makes Work Meaningful?” Meaningful Work, by Andrea Veltman, Oxford University

Press, 2016, pp. 105–141.

“work.” Oxford Living Dictionaries. 2019. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/work (21

Apr. 2019).