Dr. Jonathan Malesic wants to break down a longstanding mantra that people will find their main purpose through work.
Malesic is a leading American thinker on work and the author of the groundbreaking book “The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives.”
He was the guest speaker for Concordia’s Community Conversations event in January, “Getting a Life: Finding Meaning Beyond Employment,” presented by the Lorentzsen Center for Faith and Work, a program of the Offutt School of Business.
“It’s a hope that we’ll recognize our lives are all we have and we need to spend it as well as possible,” Malesic told the audience during the live, virtual event.
From his years of research on the topic, which included spending time with monks around the United States, Malesic said his main takeaway was the need for workers to talk openly about their ideals, motivations, and frustrations and to think about what could be different in the workplace.
“Burnout is experienced by the individual, but it’s not caused by the individual,” Malesic said. “If we remain isolated, we’re never going to solve the issues.”
Malesic said employers should not fear these types of conversations but rather encourage them. He said they have more responsibility for their employees than customers and suggested that decisions not be made from the top down.
“Businesses need to take into account that the decisions they make affect human lives,” he said. “We’re not just numbers on a spreadsheet and on an org chart.”
Dr. Per Anderson, interim director of the Lorentzsen Center for Faith and Work, spoke of Concordia’s commitment to shaping students as a whole through its Learn | Work | Lead framework. He asked Malesic for specific advice to students.
“For students, I understand all the pressure you face to treat education as a job or a means to a job,” Malesic said. “Keep in mind you will not always be a worker in your life. You’ll always be a human being with many more facets to you than your economic productivity.
“The education that you’re in the middle of right now is valuable for more than just that first job or more than just your career. It is meant to be an education for the entire human being for their entire lifetime to give you tools that you can exercise in order to flourish not just economically but personally, morally, and spiritually, so I encourage you to think more broadly about what your education has to offer you as a human being and to take full advantage of it.”
“Getting a Life: Finding Meaning Beyond Employment” can be viewed online along with the previous event in this season’s Community Conversations series, “The Big Quit: Why Millions of Americans are Leaving Their Jobs.”
Readers can also find a recent article by Dr. Shontarius Aikens, assistant professor of management at Concordia, on workplace culture and employee retention for Fargo INC! Magazine here.