No work without a meaning

Framery’s Head of People and Culture Anni Hallilla visited the New trends in occupational healthcare series of the Mehiläisen Pisto podcast to discuss the meaningfulness of work and motivation with Mehiläinen Working Life Services’ Chief Occupational Psychologist Maaret von Wright.

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Plagued by impostor syndrome

When Anni returned to work six years ago from her second maternity leave, she was faced with a new and inspiring task and step in her career: the role of Human Capital and Diversity Lead at her workplace at the time. She was anxiously waiting for the start of the work and all the things that the new position would offer her, but soon noticed that she had lost her motivation. The reason for the lack of motivation was the issue encountered by many when starting in a new position: the impostor syndrome.

“I was losing my motivation since I strongly felt that I can’t handle this and I don’t have the required know-how,” says Anni.

Anni overcame the impostor syndrome and lack of motivation with the help of her colleagues. When she was feeling that she will not succeed in her work, people around her showed their trust in her skills and helped her move forward. Her strong passion for the subject of the work and desire to perform well in the meaningful work also helped her to find her missing motivation. Anni finds work motivation very important and believes that everyone wants to do their work well and with satisfaction and joy. If motivation is missing, this will also be reflected in the results.

Work motivation from the outside?

Anni feels that maintaining work motivation is fundamentally the responsibility of an individual:

“Happiness, meaningfulness and work motivation cannot be given from the outside. You must find them within yourself and through considering what is important to you, why your role is significant and what is the meaning of your role.”

However, she thinks that the colleagues, supervisors and organisation play an important role as enablers, in other words, as channels for implementing the things that promote motivation. Lack of work motivation does not necessarily show and, therefore, the individual is responsible for bringing their problems forward. This requires an organisational culture in which even the most challenging issues can be discussed.

“An open culture provides opportunities for the employee to tell if something is wrong. Whether it is about wanting more responsibilities or not finding a suitable way to use their own creativity. The culture within the organisation must support this kind of discussion,” says Anni.

Anni also emphasises that the supervisor must know their own team so that they can identify the strengths of the individuals and, on the basis of the strengths, guide the individuals forward and feed motivation. HR is responsible for providing a framework for the supervisor, and thereby for the employees, in which they can operate in the best possible way. HR can facilitate work motivation management by offering development opportunities, such as training and new roles.

Anni says that at Framery, motivation is supported through “controlled chaos”, in other words, through offering context instead of control. Instead of processes and detailed instructions, Framery trusts that there is no need for strict control when it is openly communicated what is being done and why so that the employees can make decisions independently. Challenges are also brought by the strong growth: Framery currently has approximately 350 employees, of which a hundred were recruited last year. Integrating the new employees into the existing culture plays a key role.

In addition to the controlled chaos, happiness is at the heart of Framery’s culture and motivation promotion – and, according to Anni, this is the reason for Framery’s entire existence.

“We believe that if we can help our customers to be even slightly happier in their working life, we have succeeded in our tasks.”

Framery is implementing this mission through, for example, soundproofed spaces which facilitate concentrating in open offices.

All work is meaningful

Anni believes that everyone wants to perform meaningful work although they would not actively think about the meaningfulness of work. Finding meaningfulness, similarly as motivation, starts within the individual: working must feel important. She recommends discussing the issue with a colleague or supervisor if finding meaningfulness seems challenging. These discussions may reveal how your own work affects the whole and, finally, the customer.

However, finding meaningfulness and especially managing meaningfulness are not simple tasks even for the supervisor, as meaningfulness is created through different things to different people. According to Anni, it is crucial to identify your own motivation factors and ways for living your passion:

“If you enjoy talking with different people and travelling around the world, sales work could be a great opportunity for you. On the other hand, for some, this kind of job description would drain energy instead of promoting motivation and meaningfulness.”

According to Anni, the key question is what gives you energy and what drains it. Work tasks are rarely only energising and empowering, but most of them should be. According to Anni, a culture supporting discussion is emphasised when trying to understand the meaningfulness for individuals within the organisation. With this kind of culture, it is possible to understand the individual’s situation and, thereby, understand why something is meaningful to one person and not to the other.

Anni and Maaret both think that all work is meaningful. Maaret told a story about a man she encountered during her holiday trip whose work included taking tourists up and down a clock tower with a lift. This monotonous work seemed to bring joy to this man who made contact with people, joked and discussed with the tourists in several languages. He understood his role as a provider of a positive customer experience. Maaret believes that any kind of work can be made meaningful to yourself.

This is well demonstrated by the story when John F. Kennedy visited a NASA office where a janitor told the president that he works in the office, since he is helping put a man on the moon. Seeing the value of your work as part of the whole brings meaningfulness to work.