In the business world, managers confront a persistent problem of employees who seek more meaning. This article in the WSJ shows the need for a Zion ideal and the pre-requisite change of heart.
Generation Z Yearns for Stability
The cure to professional malaise and existential dread? Focus on making life meaningful, not safe.
What, then, might be the message to the future and current employees who so ardently seek stability? It can’t be a version of “Toughen up.” People are hurting. They need understanding. The answer also shouldn’t be anything like the one I gave to the Midwestern class seeking anti-burnout and self-care advice. Caught in the headlights, I ended up blurting out something about “grit,” “resilience” and the importance of “staying optimistic.”
What I wish I had said was a harder truth: Even though your parents tried for you, no one gets a perfect life, let alone a normal one. Although there have been periods of “Ozzie and Harriet” tranquility, they have been rare, if they were even real in the first place.
As you get older—and yes, you will all get older—all you can really hope for is good health and a meaningful life. Our health is often out of our hands, but making meaning of the change around us—making it about something greater and better than simply change itself—is something we can all endeavor to do, perhaps now more than ever.
Let’s make that the new normal together.