Stats Tell a Story
Stats tell a story. And in honor of World Statistics Day, we want to tell a story about a topic closest to our heart: work.
The Sad Statistics
86% of employees are disengaged and unsatisfied with their jobs
Disengaged employees costs $300 billion in lost productivity per year
70% of people suffer from stress-related illness
There’s a 33% increase of heart attacks on Monday mornings (Source: Los Angeles Times)
There's a 25% increase in work-related injuries on Mondays (Source: Entrepreneur Magazine)
More people die at 9:00am on Monday morning than any other time of day, or any other day of the week (Source: National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
34% think they will burn out on the job in the next 2 years (Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
The United States has one of the highest rates of suicide among wealthy countries.
Why Do You Work?
Is work that necessary evil sandwiched between those thin slices of enjoyment on the weekends? Is it mainly a method of paying the bills and showing responsibility? Or a way to prove to our parents that the college degree was a reasonable investment? Or the fastrack to retirement? Or is it more?
Work can be the highest expression of your talents. Or it can be a mind-numbing, soul-sucking grind. But too many of us sacrifice our greatest gifts for success, status, and stuff, only to realize what we all really want is significance: to do work that matters.
The consumer research center for the Conference Board in New York reports that there may have been sharp declines in many areas of job satisfaction in the American workforce since 1995. For many people, work has become nothing more than a paycheck. It's an accepted cliche to hate your job and to belittle the boss and the company.
But you can't pour yourself into your work if you hate it. You could perform like others and get paycheck, you are not likely to experience meaning, purpose satisfaction, or fulfillment in work you dread.
Money is Never Enough
Success is living for yourself; significance is living for something so much bigger.
It's the time to rethink the way we think about wealth and work. Our culture tends to prioritize profit over purpose. But purpose isn’t a nicety. It’s a necessity. And the stats back it up. It’s time to rethink the way we think about wealth and work. Your life (and our world) depends on it.
Comments