I work at a large company in communications. I coordinate things like mass mailings and mutual fund proxies and I also help design company forms. I like to call my department the junk mail department because I can’t get over the fact that 99.99999% of my work that I spend 40 hours a week putting together probably just ends up not even being read and wadded up in people’s trash cans. That’s why it makes me laugh when I see my bosses stressing about deadlines and having meetings every day etc. I mean, come on – we ain’t exactly splitting the atom here. In summation, I would have to say that my current job is totally meaningless and contributes nothing whatsoever to the welfare of a single living person. The only redeeming aspect about it for me is that I get nights and weekends off and I get a paycheck every other week. For what, I have no clue. Once all this wedding crap is over, I will start my ACP and hopefully have a teaching job for the coming school year. I can't wait. What about your job?
By your criteria, I'd have to say that my job is completely meaningful. I do 90% of the work running the IT shop for my department, including servers, network, printers, desktop, lab devices, telemedicine, etc. Some of the stuff I support runs experiments for new vaccines like the women's herpes vaccine. Hmm...theres a joke or ten in there somewhere.
My company imports and then distributes alcoholic beverages (wine & spirits) all over the great state of Texas. Pretty meaningful, I guess...
Extremely meaningful. I develop reading curriculum, media (dvds, etc) and software for a large non-profit organization that focuses on working with low income schools. The material I develop is used in thousands of schools and helps hundreds of thousands of kids learn to read. I couldn't ask for a better, more meaningful, job.
I guess it depends on how you look at it. My previous job as a project manager for a restaurant equipment company had me supplying equipment to fast food & ice cream chains. I always felt like I was just helping the country get a little fatter. I'm now an account manager for a synthetic turf manufacturer. We're helping cities install turf in medians and other spaces so that they don't have to landscape and use huge amounts of water to maintain grass. It's being used in residential landscaping for the same reason. Schools are putting it in to save large amounts of money on water for fields and playgrounds. I can go on and on.
I teach K-5th music. There are some kids who've told me my class is the only reason they want to stay in school. Meaningful? Yeah, pretty much.
I have TWO jobs and they are BOTH completely meaningless. I work at Chick-Fil-A and I wash dishes at Sachiko's Porter House (an upscale restaraunt). But it's ok, because I'm still a senior in high school
I've had a helluva lot of meaningless ones, but being a stay at home dad ranks up there on the important list. I'm making up for lost time.
im an Enrollment Counsler at the University of Phoenix, Houston Campus and i have to say I love my job. Ive been here for almost 3 months now and its the best iver ever had. Everyday by going to work i can change someones life by enrolling them and motivating them and getting them in school. I take it to heart when my students have been through hard times and are ready for a change. Its inspiring to myself as well as others. I look forward to work and dont mind working 40-55 hours a week sometimes. So i would say it is completely MEANINGFUL!
My "regular" job that pays the bills is in IT -- developing data warehouses. You could say it's meaningful (helping a large company stay in business to provide lots of jobs) -- but it's been a long time since I received any fullfillment out of it. Every other weekend I work at a crisis shelter for kids from birth to age 6. Families in stress can bring their kids in. I love those kids!
at the risk of sounding corny, i would never call any job meaningless...just like i wouldn't call any post-high school education one receives meaningless, whether it's at an accredited college or community.
Small Picture - my job is completely meaningless. I receive documents, copy the documents, send copies to different places, create a spreadsheet to track the documents, then I track the tracking spreadsheet. Big Picture - those documents are required by the FDA so that they can evaluate investigational drugs that might possibly help many many sick/injured people. So, overall, my job has some meaning, but I just get lost in the little things most of the time.
My job is a 6 in a meaningful scale of 1 to10. I program some web stuff and some Linux stuff and some Perl stuff to create reports and pages that allow students to enroll and faculty to view their classes in a web-based course management tool. That's a different thread 'cuz that has nothing to do with your job being meaningful.
