Key Points

1. We can look to the infamous words of C.J. Dickson made in the 1987 case, Alberta Reference, for some of the first judicial comments touching on the meaning of work

   
   

2. When thinking about what exactly makes work meaningful, we can look to psychologists who have demonstrated through scientific studies that meaningful work can be attributed to community, contribution, and challenge—leaders are recommended to incorporate these aspects in their management strategies

   
   

3. Leaders are also encouraged to note that self-actualization is the process of realizing and fulfilling one’s potential, leading to a more meaningful life. It involves personal growth, self-awareness, and the pursuit of authenticity, creativity, and purpose

My co-founder, Tommy Cooke, just wrote a great article that discusses the effects of the Duolingo layoffs. In that piece, he talks about how Duolingo just replaced its contract workers (on top of the 10 percent of its workforce it just reduced) and replaced them with AI. Ultimately, he concludes that AI achieves its greatest potential not by replacing humans, but by augmenting and enhancing human capabilities—and it follows that Duolingo runs the risk of reducing employee morale, increasing inefficiencies, and causing other long-term negative consequences like damage to reputation. Duolingo is not alone when it comes to reducing a part of its workforce and replacing it with AI.

In fact, Cooke suggests that organizations that prioritize human-AI collaboration through hybrid workflows, upskilling, and governance position themselves for long-term success.

This article got me thinking more deeply about the meaning of work. From an Employment Law perspective, I am very familiar with the following statement made by Dickson C.J. in 1987 (Alberta Reference):

“Work is one of the most fundamental aspects in a person's life, providing the individual with a means of financial support and, as importantly, a contributory role in society. A person's employment is an essential component of his or her sense of identity, self‑worth and emotional well‑being. Accordingly, the conditions in which a person works are highly significant in shaping the whole compendium of psychological, emotional and physical elements of a person's dignity and self-respect”

Furthermore, Dickson C.J. elaborated that a person’s employment is an essential component of his or her sense of identity, self‑worth and emotional well‑being. I wrote about these concepts in my PhD dissertation, where I argued that there is an electronic surveillance gap in the employment context in Canada, a gap that is best understood as an absence of appropriate legal provisions to regulate employers’ electronic surveillance of employees both inside and outside the workplace. More specifically, I argued that, through the synthesis of social theories of surveillance and privacy, together with analyses of privacy provisions and workplace privacy cases, a new and better workplace privacy regime can be designed (to improve PIPEDA). Disappointingly, we have still not seen the much-needed legislative reform, but let’s move on.

Thus, it is safe to say that for decades, courts have recognized the essential nature of work when deciding Employment Law cases. Economists have too. For instance, Daniel Susskind wrote a working paper where he explored the theoretical and empirical literature that addressed this relationship between work and meaning.

In fact, he explained why this relationship matters for policymakers and economists who are concerned about the impact of technology on work. He pointed out that the relationship matters for understanding how AI affects both the quantity and the quality of work and asserted that new technologies may erode the meaning that people get from their work. What’s more, if jobs are lost because of AI adoption, the relationship between work and meaning matters significantly for designing bold policy interventions like the 'Universal Basic Income' and 'Job Guarantee Schemes'.

More precisely, he argues that policymakers must decide whether to simply focus on replacing lost income alone (as with a Universal Basic Income, or UBI) or, if they believe that work is an important and non-substitutable source of meaning, on protecting jobs for that additional role as well (as with a Job Guarantee Scheme, or JGS).

With AI becoming more common in the workplace, Susskind points out that although traditional economic literature narrowly focuses on the economic impact of AI on the labour market (for instance, how employment earnings are considered), there has been a change of heart in the field that has evolved into a creeping pessimism involving the quantity of work to be done as well as the quality of that work. In fact, he touches on the notion that paid work is not only a source of an income, but of meaning as well.

He also notes that classical political philosophers and sociologists have introduced some ambiguity when envisioning the relationship, but organizational psychologists have argued and successfully demonstrated through scientific studies that people do indeed get meaning from work.

What does this all mean? Traditional economic models treat work solely as a source of disutility that people endure only for wages. But it is becoming more evident that the more modern way to think about work entails thinking about meaning—something that goes beyond income.

What the foregoing suggests is that, if AI ultimately leads to less work for most people, we may need to better understand what exactly is “meaningful” to people, and how we can ensure that people who are downsized still have these meaningful activities to do. Further, we would need to provide a great deal of opportunity in these meaningful things, so people can feel the feelings of psychological, emotional, and physical elements of a person's dignity and self-respect that C.J. Dickson referred to back in 1987.

Along the same lines, we will need to reimagine policy interventions such as UBI and JGS; while advocates of JGS tend to believe that work is necessary for meaning, UBI supporters believe that people can find meaning outside formal employment. More specifically, UBI is a social welfare proposal where all citizens receive a regular cash payment without any conditions or work requirements. The goal of UBI is to alleviate poverty and provide financial security to everyone, regardless of their economic status. On the other hand, the job guarantee is the landmark policy innovation that can secure true full employment, while stabilizing the economy, producing key social assets, and securing a basic economic right.

What we can be sure of is the fact that things are changing with respect to how we see work and meaning. For many, work is a major component of their life and views of themselves. Some would go further and suggest that work is the central organizing principle in their lives—they could not imagine life without work, and self-actualizing would not take place without it. To be sure, self-actualization is the process of realizing and fulfilling one’s potential, leading to a more meaningful life. It involves personal growth, self-awareness, and the pursuit of authenticity, creativity, and purpose.

What Makes Work Meaningful?

A closer look into what makes work meaningful can help in this discussion. Meaningful work comes from:

• Community: We are human, whether we like it or not. Because of this, we are wired for connection. Studies show that employees who feel a strong sense of belonging are more engaged and productive  

  
  

• Contribution: We view the ability to see how one’s work benefits others as one of the strongest motivators in any job. In fact, employees who find meaning in their work are 4.5 times more engaged than those who do not

  
  

• Challenge: We thrive when we are given opportunities to learn and grow. Put another way, when leaders challenge employees to expand their capabilities and provide the support they need to succeed, those employees experience more meaningful development

  
  

When you stop and think about it, it makes sense that leaders play a considerable role in shaping workplace meaning. Since about 50 percent of employees’ sense of meaning at work can be attributed to the actions of their leaders, leaders are recommended to find ways to cultivate community, contribution, and challenge so that employees and teams can thrive.

More precisely, leaders in organizations are recommended to:

• foster a strong sense of belonging

  
  

• be aware and acknowledge the impacts of employees’ work

  
  

• challenge workers so that they grow in meaningful ways

Individuals can also add some other features so that they can create some meaning for themselves, namely with self-instigated learning, volunteering in the community, participating in local government, engaging in care work, and engaging in creative work.