This Meaningful Work Matters episode features Sara Steffens, Director of the Worker Power Coalition. Steffens is a longtime unionist who has built her life and career around employee activism. She organized her ‘home union,’ Communications Worker of America, in 2008 and has continued to advocate for worker’s rights, decency, and dignity.
All Work Has Dignity
In the context of labor relations, Steffens believes every job is meaningful and important, and all work has dignity. However, not every workplace treats its workers as though their jobs are important and meaningful.
She points out a common disconnect between workers who care deeply about what they do and employers who do not ‘match’ this commitment with decency. A decent workplace, according to the UN’s International Labour Organization, fosters freedom, equity, security, and dignity at work.
Steffens feels this complicated divide is often what unions attempt to bridge through organizing.
Meaningfulness In The Absence of Decency
Should we even talk about meaning if we don’t have decency?
Steffens urges us to remember that most people still care about their work and integrity, even when decency is absent. When there is a high level of decency, meaningfulness may be what work adds to your life, such as role modeling for your children, a connection to the community, or flexibility in caring for a parent or partner.
However, Steffens adds that workers will struggle when there is meaningfulness but not decency because work affects us as humans. In this way, decency must be in place.
When Meaningfulness is Exploitative
There are countless positives to meaningful work: higher commitment, better performance, corporate citizenship, higher retention, less absenteeism, more creativity, and others.
We also know there is a dark side. When there is a high moral stake in one’s work, our passion for work can become an obsession, and the boundaries between work and life disappear. Organizations. In these contexts, employees are prepared to work harder and will do so for less because the work in and of itself is so important. Deliberately or not, organizations have been shown to turn this passion into exploitation.
Steffens reflects on her experience as a former journalist, her passion for her work, and how she felt exploited based on her commitment. This ultimately led her to organize her workplace, which has been the story for many other unions.
Enabling Conditions For Meaningful Work
Unions are often skeptical of consulting firms (like Eudaimonic by Design) that offer well-being and resilience programming. When not positioned correctly - telling an employee that it’s their responsibility to maintain their well-being or resilience in the face of workplace challenges can be tantamount to gaslighting or blaming employees for their own burnout.
Steffens emphasizes that for these types of well-being initiatives to be successful, there should be a baseline level of decency and respect toward workers. These programs can and should extend the employer’s commitment to caring for its workforce.
A ‘Both And’ Situation
The boom of mindfulness and well-being apps being leveraged by employers may be an opportunity to question why we may need these tools at work. While personal resources are essential, employees should also have enabling conditions so they don’t have to manage such things. It shouldn't be an ‘either-or’ but a ‘both and.’
Steffens says there are too many instances where workers are not initiating mindfulness or well-being measures. While these offerings are meaningful, if they are not what employees want or need, then how meaningful are they? Steffens feels this would be better received if workers organized (through a union, ERG, committee, etc.) and spoke to leadership about what they know would be helpful.
The Pandemic’s Impact on Well-Being
Steffens feels the pandemic was a clarifying moment for many workers. Particularly for those on the front lines, it was made clear that they were ‘just dollars and cents’, and this realization cannot be unseen.
There has been a fundamental shift in what people will ‘put up with for money’. Steffens doesn’t feel workers will ever go back to certain practices and that employers who’ve tried to return to the way things were are met with much more resistance.
Lastly, there’s a new acknowledgment of employees’ humanity. We’ve now seen our colleagues as real people managing a household - our ‘work-life’ and ‘personal life’ can coexist. Steffens feels this is a good thing for all of us, as ignoring our personhood at work was never helpful.
The Role of Policy and Meaningful Work
For Steffens, the most significant role of the US government in this context is to set standards for decency and dignity at work that our capitalist system will not. In the past, this looked like safety standards and child labor laws.
Today, it also includes the One Fair Wage movement and preventing harassment and discrimination. Steffens also touches on policies that legally protect workers' right to organize, form unions, collectively bargain, and strike if needed.
The Case for Employee Activism
Steffens reflects on her experience of organizing her workplace as a highly positive personal experience. She developed close relationships with her co-workers, adding meaning to her work, and referred to them as ‘like a family’.
Organized workplaces tend to band together and support each other meaningfully. Standing up for policy and integrating activism at work fosters a sense of purpose and collective commitment based on Steffens’s experience.
When union organizing works, it’s rooted in respecting people’s dignity. Every job is valuable, even for those who may not consider the work as particularly meaningful. We undervalue many jobs as a society, but they all contribute to our global connection as humans.
Further resources to explore:
The Mindfulness Conspiracy by Ronald Purser, of The Guardian (2019)
Learn more about One Fair Wage
