Making Work Meaningful is a way of finding joy or fulfillment in your daily tasks, which could be viewed as mundane or unimportant. People do this in many different ways, from learning new skills in their jobs to helping others. Not everyone needs to do this, but many people find they are happier when they do. Sometimes, it can be thought one has found their “calling” when they find meaning in their work.
If you find meaning in your work, your personal life will most certainly improve because the people around you will sense your happiness. Joy is contagious, and your partner will find you more pleasant when you come from work feeling fulfilled. The same goes for your coworkers, they will sense your enthusiasm and respond to it by things such as better work interactions, promotions, etc.
I strongly advise you to find a career that brings meaning and joy into your life. If you find yourself in a job that is crushing your enthusiasm but live for the nights and weekends, you have to consider you are spending a large portion of you life in a place where you are unhappy. Seek out a position that brings you fulfillment until you find it and hold onto it once it’s there.
This RichardStep Marketing survey was designed to get a better understanding of what really gets under the skin of those folks out there dealing with making work meaningful. Read over the awesome answers below and see how you can tailor your business to address the frustrations of the people most relevant to your business niche market. Want more? Read the 125 other topics in the ‘Frustrations’ survey category by clicking here.
The following list are uncut and raw responses of the things this group found most frustrating in their daily lives.
Making Work Meaningful
- A woman came Into my place of work on Sunday asking for an item that we do not sell, insisting that she bought it on Saturday. It was frustrating because she argued with me saying she bought it on Saturday when I know she did not because I worked on Saturday.
- At work last week, one of my coworkers failed to show up, so I had to explain and calm many agitated customers who wanted more food than I could prepare solo. It was frustrating because it was a situation that was mostly out of my control since we were short staffed.
- Fix my bike. It took hours of deduction and cause-and-effect reasoning to understand the relationships between the moving parts on my bicycle. No amount of online reading or YouTube videos could “teach” me how my bicycle worked; I simply had to figure it out for myself by observing the effects of my tinkering first hand.
- Getting someone to do their workouts im trying to help. But as the old saying is you cant push someone into the bus. The story is one boy came to class 5min late and the teacher asked why and he said he was helping an old lady get on a bus. Then another boy came 5min before class ended and the teacher asked why he was late. The boy said he was helping a old lady get on a bus. Then the teacher said well it took the other boy 5 min. So the boy said “well she did not want to get on the bus”. So I realized that person who I was trying to help did not want to help them self so that bothered me.
- Having to follow a cleaning rota at work. I was frustrated because the template and allocation of jobs was one that I originally designed and it was then messed up by someone else, and moved on the computer so I couldn’t access it. To add insult to injury I now have to just do what I am told to on the new messed up version of the template that I originally put together, grrrrrrr
- Having to teach my nephew how to finish his homework. We could sound out words but for some reason he couldn’t put the words together to pronounce it, it frustrated me because I would tell him the word he would repeat it we would go through the steps to pronounce it and when we came back to the same word we had worked on pronouncing he tend to forget the word and I would continually try to help him with each word but over and over again it would frustrate me that he couldn’t remember.
- Honestly the most frustrating thing lately is finding an alarm clock to wake up in the mornings. We have gone through several recently and none of them are working! Our kids are always up very early, so they have been waking us up. It’s frustrating because I like to get up and be relaxed in the mornings, not rushed.
- How can I reach my full potential, doing the things I love to do, being socially and financially secure. The most frustrating thing I have done was at work where innitiative, good work ethics and strong values are not appreciated and valued correctly. I quit saying my opinion and just did as “ordered”.
- I had to listen to this girl that I had a big emotional connection with a few years back reveal that she was just wasting away at the moment. It was frustrating because I felt like if things had worked out differently between me and her things could have been better, for the both of us.
- I have had to work with an individual that only values their own ideas and input, if you do not agree with them then you are wrong and need to be properly guided to their POV. This is frustrating because no one individual has all the answers and those that are not receptive to input and thoughts that don’t match their are really irritating to be around!
- I have two daughters. Putting the oldest one (2 years old) to bed is the most frustrating thing I do at home. She always wants another drink, or a toy, or to watch TV or a movie, it is often exhausting, but I never let that affect my own demeanor, be it at home or in a work environment.
- I have two jobs working with youth plus I play and teach music. Most frustrating thing would be everyone’s attitude, including my own. Everyone is super grumpy and we all get even more grumpy because nothing is improving. And the kids are really mouthy and disrespectful. I would say that poor and inconsistent communication is a close runner-up. No one tells anyone anything! So then instead of everyone being on the same page and enforcing the same rules, everyone is taking matters into their own hands, confusing the kids and ourselves.
- I was trying to navigate the newest iTunes, but it is not intuitive and I was frustrated that it was so hard to navigate, I was also in a rush to leave for work and wanted to put a playlist on my iPhone so I could listen to it on the bus, but I was going to be late if I stayed another minute so I left, threw my lap top on my backpack and told my self i’d figure it out at work. I was frustrated by the new iTunes and anxious because I was running late.
- I went to buy a suit in matalan which didn’t have my size in the jacket but they had my pants. I inquired whether they were available in another store and they confirmed so I went to the other store. the jacket was available however the pants were not so I had to purchase what was there then go back to the other store and get the pants. this wild goose chase left me very frustrated because I had no control over the situation as I needed these pants and the employees did not do their job properly
- I work at a nursing home and my grandmother had recently had a stroke. The night she came back from the Hospital I was on her unit. It was hard to deal with family members thinking I could be with her 24/7 when I also have a list of 10 other residents whom I also am responsible for taking care of.
- I work in a personal Care home. It is frustrating for me when I give personal care and go the extra mile ( which is what personal care really is) and the the person in care is irritated because they are cared for. They are rude by physical action and in language.
- In my work place , I have to continuously print a huge amount of documents something about 20 000 pages and then to segregate these documents in a presentable format of 25 files. This situation is frustrating because this is not my job to do and this responsibility is given by my line manager without consulting me.
- In the past few days, I was on spring break vacation. Sadly, it just recently ended, and I was forced to go home to a pile of work and a heavy load of stress. My happy and carefree attitude of spring break quickly faded into a dreadfully boring and depressing attitude.
- I’ve had to redo my taxes because the IRS automatically adjusted something on them that was wrong. This was frustrating because it skewed everything the wrong direction, they gave me money that wasn’t mine, and I now have to do twice the work to give money back to the government – because it is what is ethically correct.
- My internet broke out at my house yesterday, I pissed off because I needed to do my assignment, I tried every methods but it could not be fix, I have to contact with the landlord but I had to wait for him until mid night, I felt crazy and worried about my stuff and I had to stay until midnight to finish my works.
- My kids. I am a single divorced mom without a support structure of family. (Both of my parents being deceased and brothers I am not that close to as they are 10+ years older.) I constantly have the argument of “Why don’t I have?” and “Why can’t we have/go/do as we do at Dad’s?” While Dad has both living parents and a fiancee with both living parents. I’m afraid my children are ending up a bit spoiled from everyone but me. It’s trying to explain to them why their father and I didn’t work out, and why I struggle so much while they seem to have everything over there.
- One of the most frustrating thing that I had to do recently was editing my computer to make the desktop appear better looking with rainmeter, but then I was unable to have the shutdown code work for it which was shutdown -s. I kept trying and making shortcuts of a shutdown -s program yet it still didn’t work.
- One of the most frustrating things I have had to deal with the past few days is customers at work. I work in fast food and when you work in fast food you really get to see how stupid can be and are. Yes, working in fast food, the customer comes first but they are so frustrating when they don’t get every little thing that they want.
- The most frustrating thing about my job would have to be that I’m not working with the type of children that I’m passionate about working with. I’m working here because I need the job and they pay well, but it’s not a passion; however I have to do what I have to do in order to do what I want to do.
- The most frustrating thing I have had to deal with is work. Everyday I am having to fight for my job and that is packing out, but now they have had someone new to do it and it makes me mad, so I try to get to work early enough to where I can get to my line. And my boyfriend was acting ridiculous as well.
- The most frustrating thing that has happened to me in the past few days at work was having to organize and prioritize my schedule the best possible way. We have been really busy since the beginning of the year and things have become a little hectic. Just trying to stay organized and not get too overwhelmed.
- The most frustrating thing, I’ve had to do in the past few days, was dealing with MTA Transit. Leaving work at 12am, having to be back at 4pm that same evening, every minute off the clock is essential. With the long wait for the train , and then for my usually express number 2 train to be running local, it is extremely frustrating.