“Why Is This Here?”: 66 Things People Discovered Hidden In Plain Sight At Work

Research shows that meaningfulness is more important to us than any other aspect of our jobs — including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, and working conditions.

When we feel our work is meaningful, we’re more engaged, committed, and satisfied. When we don’t, we’re more willing to quit, and this is especially true for younger employees.

So how do you make your work more meaningful on the days you don’t find something interesting?

Part of the solution involves leaders at the top of their organizations. There are several ways they can create conditions that foster more meaningfulness at work. The other part, however, involves us — the individuals. And ultimately, what makes work meaningful is unique to you and your values.

Researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the University of Bath’s School of Management tested ideas suggesting that being in a state of awareness may be linked to stronger meaning-making at work. They hypothesized that if people were more aware of themselves and their work environments, they would also be more likely to address work-related challenges in creative ways. (The researchers referred to this mindset as “flexible thinking.”)

To test their hypothesis, the researchers carried out a survey of four service-oriented occupations (healthcare, government, teaching, and fitness) over a period of six weeks. (Nearly three-quarters of the participants were women, most of whom were between 30 and 50 years of age.)

Each week, they asked each participant to reflect on what had happened to them at work, and the results revealed that being in a state of awareness helped people experience more meaningful work.

When people are intentionally aware of their actions, reactions, and thoughts, they naturally become more attentive to the environment they’re operating in. They become more attuned to their coworkers and their everyday interactions, listen more actively, become stronger communicators, and better understand the context behind people’s words and actions.

“This awareness adds clarity and vividness to their experiences, allowing them to see previously unattended information that makes their tasks feel more purposeful,” the researchers explained.

Another important discovery was that the more aware people were, the more flexible their thinking was.

This helped them find creative ways to handle challenging situations, making their work feel more meaningful overall as well.

Once the researchers learned that awareness helps people make meaning of their work, they further explored what employees notice in this state and how it affects them. In their second study, they asked employees in engineering, the public sector, and financial services to reflect on meaningful work events over four weeks, along with the thoughts and feelings associated with them.

Each week, participants wrote these reflections in a document and submitted them at the end of the week. The aim was to encourage 10 to 15 minutes of focused reflection.

The researchers found that in this more mindful state, participants paid closer attention to relationships. These relationships — with colleagues, managers, and clients — often made work feel more meaningful by highlighting the human side of it.

So what’s actually in our control when it comes to finding meaning in everyday work? Based on the research, here are a few practical things that help:

1. Practice mindfulness. Even short daily exercises can boost awareness, reduce overthinking, and help people respond more clearly to what’s happening at work.
2. Build intentional awareness. Simple habits like journaling (“What felt meaningful today?”) can make a difference. Teams can also do this together by briefly sharing what felt meaningful in meetings or check-ins.
3. Invest in relationships. Work feels more meaningful when relationships are respectful, supportive, and safe. Things like listening properly, showing appreciation, and respecting people’s time all matter.
4. Create feedback and reflection loops. Regular recognition and short reflections on past, present, and future progress help people feel their work has an impact. This can easily be built into one-on-ones or team meetings.

As work becomes more automated and roles change, meaning and purpose will likely matter more as well. And since there isn’t an unlimited supply of easter eggs scattered around our workplaces to entertain us, we need to do something about ourselves.