But almost as important, yet much less commonly recognized, is that a job should feel full of meaning.

但幾乎和薪水一樣重要卻常不被認可的是，一份工作應該要讓人感到充滿意義。

Yet, how does a job get to feel meaningful?

但是工作要如何變得有意義呢？

What even does it mean to say that a job has meaning?

所謂「工作有意義」到底是什麼意思？

There seem to be three things that imbue work with meaning.

似乎有三件事情可以賦予工作意義。

Firstly, a meaningful job taps into the deepest, most sincere and talented parts of us.

首先，一份有意義的工作要能觸及我們最深層、最真誠且最有天份的一面。

So, different people will necessarily find different sorts of work meaningful according to what's inside their deeper self.

所以説，不同的人會根據他們內心深處的自我，找到對自己而言有意義的工作。

For some, meaning might emerge from baking bread.

某些人可能會從烘焙中找到意義。

Others will feel their deep self engaged by computer science.

有些人會發現內心深受電腦科學牽引。

For others still, they'll feel most fully themselves, most fully alive when investing money or teaching kids a foreign language.

其他人則可能在投資或教小孩外語時，最充分地感到最像自己並充滿活力。

Secondly, a meaningful job is one which, to some extent, helps others, which fixes a problem that humans have.

第二，一份有意義的工作在某種程度上能夠幫助他人，解決人類的一個問題。

A job which, in ways large and small, serves humanity.

一份以或大或小的方式服務人類的工作。

Meaningful work provides a service to others.

有意義的工作提供服務給他人。

And thirdly, a job feels meaningful when the person doing it can viscerally sense, day-to-day, the impact of their work upon an audience.

而第三，當一個人能發自內心地從日常工作中感受到工作帶給他人的影響時，這份工作便充滿意義。

Not only is the job theoretically meaningful, it actually feels meaningful as one does it in a course of an average day.

這份工作不僅在理論上有意義，每天做這份工作的人也能實際感受到它的意義。

Why should it be so hard to find meaningful work?

為什麼要找到有意義的工作這麼困難呢？

Why are we in such danger of doing work that brings in money but doesn't fulfill the meaning side of us?

為什麼我們會處於一個為了賺錢而工作，但心裡卻如此空虛的險境？

Three big reasons stand out.

有三個顯而易見的主要理由。

Firstly, because it's perilously hard for us to locate our true interests in the time we have before simply paying the bills becomes the imperative.

首先，因為要在單純付帳單這件事成為我們的當務之急前找到自己真正的興趣定位是很困難的。

Our interests don't manifest themselves spontaneously.

我們的興趣並不會自然而然地顯現出來，

They require us to patiently analyze ourselves and try out a range of options to see what feels as if it might have the best fit for us.

它們需要我們耐心地自我分析並廣泛嘗試各種選擇，感受哪一個像是最適合自己的。

But, unfortunately, schools and universities, as well as society at large, doesn't place much emphasis on this stage of education⏤

但很不幸地，學校和大學，甚至整個社會，都不太重視這個階段的教育——

on helping people to understand their authentic working identities.

也就是幫助人們了解他們真實的工作特性。

There's far more emphasis on simply getting ready for any job than a job that would particularly well-suited to us,

人們更強調為任何工作而不是特別適合我們的工作做好準備，

which is a pity not just for individuals but for the economy as a whole,

這對個體和整體經濟都很可惜，

because people will always work better, harder, and more fruitfully when their deep selves are engaged.

因為當人們投入內心深處自我喜歡的工作時，他們的工作會更好、更努力、更有成效。

Secondly, many jobs are relatively meaningless because it's very possible, in the current economy,

第二，許多工作相對地缺乏意義，因為很可能在現有的經濟狀況下，

to generate profits from selling people things that aren't really helping them in any way,

這些工作是為了賺取利益而賣給人們一些根本幫不上忙的東西 ，

but are more hoodwinking them or preying on their lack of self-command.

反而比較像是欺騙消費者或瞄準人們自制力的缺乏。

Most of us have a dangerously loose hold on what really brings us satisfaction long-term,

我們大部分的人對於什麼是能真正帶來長遠滿足感的東西有很深的誤會，

which gives room for entrepreneurs to build huge and profitable businesses, selling stuff which no one's particularly proud of at the end of an average day.

這讓商人們得以創造有利可圖的商機，最終兜售一些不值得一提的東西。

Those working in these businesses know in their hearts that they haven't really helped anyone have a better life.

那些在這種企業工作的人深知他們絲毫沒有幫助他人過上更好的生活。

The job pays; that's why they keep doing it, but there's, sadly, very little meaning.

但是這個工作有薪水，才讓他們繼續做，但其中卻可悲地毫無意義可言。

Thirdly, a job may have real meaning and genuinely be helping others, but it may not feel like this day-to-day,

第三，一個工作可能真正有意義且真實在幫助他人，但在日常時的感受卻相反，

because many organizations are so large, so slow-moving, so split up over so many continents

因為許多組織規模非常地龐大、進度緩慢、四散於世界各地，

that the purpose of everyone's workday gets lost amidst endless meetings, memos, conference calls, and admin.

以致於所有人的工作目標在無限的會議、備忘錄、電話會議和行政事務中迷失。

If you're one of 10,000 people on four continents working towards a product that will help humanity in 2022,

如果你是四大洲中為了在 2022 年推出能幫助全人類的產品而忙碌得一萬名工作者之一，

you may well lose the thread of what the real purpose of it all is.

你很有可能會對一切的真實目的感到毫無頭緒。

No wonder people who work in large organizations often fantasize about throwing it all in and working in a job with a more tangible sense of the end result.

難怪在大企業工作的人們時常換想拋棄一切，轉而從事一個更能看到實際成果的工作。

For example, running a small B&B or a landscape gardening firm.

例如，經營一間小型民宿或花園景觀公司。

The very scale of modern enterprise has sapped a lot of work of a sense of meaning.

正是因為現代企業的規模消磨了許多工作中的意義。

This diagnosis helps to point the way to what we might begin to do to make work more meaningful for people.

這項結果幫助指引我們方向，知道我們該做什麼才能讓工作對於人們來說更有意義。

Firstly, pay a lot more attention to helping people find their vocation, their real working authentic selves

首先，要更著重於幫助人們找到他們的天職、他們工作的真實自我，

through moves like career psychotherapy, extended work placements, and changes to school and university curricula,

透過像是職涯心理治療、額外工作實習、學校和大學課程的調整等行動，

so as to allow students to start to analyze their identities and aptitudes from a much younger age.

以幫助學生們從更早的年齡開始分析自己的特性和才能。

Secondly, the more we, as customers, can support businesses engaged in meaningful work, the more meaningful jobs there will be.

第二，如果我們能更以消費者的角度去支持企業投入於有意義的工作，世界上就會有更多有意義的工作。

Consumers have an enormous power over what kind of lives we can have as producers.

消費者對身為製造者的我們可以過怎樣的生活有很大的決定力。

By raising the quality of our demand, we raise the number of jobs there are which can answer to mankind's deeper needs.

藉由提升的我們需求的品質，我們就能增加更多能夠滿足人們內心需求的工作機會。

Thirdly, in businesses which do meaningful work but on too large a scale over too long a period for it to feel meaningful day-to-day,

第三，對於那些應該做有意義的工作，但規模太大、時間太長以至於日常工作感覺不有意義的企業，

we need to get better at telling stories of what the business is up to.

我們需要更好地講述企業行為的故事。

We need to give work some of the intimacy of a small B&B, even if it's a giant multinational.

即使它是一間大型跨國公司，我們也需要賦予工作一些小型民宿的親密感。

Ensuring that work is meaningful is vital⏤iIt's not a luxury.

確保工作有意義至關重要，它並非奢望。

It determines the greatest issue of all in modern economics and politics:

它決定了現代經濟和政治中最重要的問題：

How hard and well people will work, and, therefore, how successful and wealthy our societies can be.

人們工作有多努力、良好，我們的社會就能有多成功、富裕。