The difference between a job, career and a calling

Zero limits cover 

Author Jeff Goins cites a study published in Forbes in 2013 which found that ‘only 13 percent of the world’s workers are engaged in their jobs’, while the majority are dissatisfied and disgruntled with their work. Alas, Monday morning blues aren’t limited to reluctant school children, but persist into adulthood.

When you craft a career, you would ideally want to do work that positively impacts your well-being. How can you ensure this?

Research by Amy Wrzesniewski and her colleagues can help you cultivate a mindset that helps you find meaning in whatever work you do. Unlike earlier generations that had fewer choices regarding the type of work they could opt for, youngsters today have more opportunities. Apart from the opening up of markets and the internet, millennials have fewer cultural and social taboos when choosing a career path. Stereotypes regarding gender and class are being challenged as men become chefs and kids of conventional ‘engineer-doctor’ parents become painters and musicians.

As we spend so much of our lives working, job satisfaction contributes significantly to our overall well-being. When assessing the quality of our jobs, we may think that the type of work we do makes the biggest difference. However, Amy Wrzesniewski’s research suggests that our attitudes towards our work can make a palpable difference. She makes a threefold distinction by categorising work as ‘Jobs, Careers and Callings’.

A job is when people engage in work primarily to earn money. In contrast, those who conceive of work as a career are not motivated solely by monetary rewards. In addition, they are keen to climb to higher echelons in the workplace and strive hard to get promoted and recognised within their organisation or field.

Fulfilment in work

Finally, those who approach their work as a calling are driven by the work itself. For them, their work is an integral part of who they are. As they find fulfilment in what they do, their work is an end in itself.

Wrzesniewski and her colleagues found that those who viewed their work as a calling experienced the most life and work satisfaction. People typically associate certain professions like medicine or teaching as callings. But Wrzesniewski’s research shows that any type of work can be perceived as either a job, career or calling depending on how a person approaches their duties.

In their book, Positive Psychology, C R Snyder and Shane Lopez narrate a poignant anecdote that captures this point. When Snyder was admitted in hospital for a major surgery, he observed how an orderly went about her duties. This woman, whose shift ran from midnight to 8 am, had to perform tedious menial tasks like cleaning bedpans and changing sheets.

However, she described her work as ensuring that postoperative patients were comfortable and felt taken care of. She immersed herself wholeheartedly into what she did. She went out of her way to do things for patients that extended well beyond the scope of her expected duties. On her way to work every night, she would pick up fresh-cut flowers from a grocery store that used to throw away unsold stock.

She would then arrange the flowers in vases to cheer up her patients. When her patients complained of excruciating pain, she would comfort them with the thought that their families would arrive in the morning.

Here, we see an example of how a humble and low-status job was transformed into something meaningful, dignified and beautiful. As Martin Seligman says, “Any job can become a calling, and any calling a job.” Even mundane jobs can be elevating if you harness your strengths, invest your energies wholeheartedly, pay attention to detail and take pride in what you do.

On the other hand, so called lofty or high-status occupations can seem devoid of purpose unless you derive satisfaction and appreciate the significance of what you do. Your work is shaped by the demands of the job and how you, as an individual, relate to them.

By reimagining and remodelling your approach to work, you too can devise a calling.

(Excerpts from ‘Zero Limits: Things every 20 something should know’ by Aruna Sankaranarayanan, published by Rupa Publications)