In every company, there comes a point when leaders realise something uncomfortable: people do not give their best only because of salary hikes, designations, or perks. Those things matter, but they are not enough. What truly sustains engagement?
Is it something deeper?
Yes, it’s the feeling that work has meaning.
This idea is not new. It was powerfully articulated by Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, who argued that human beings are fundamentally driven by a search for meaning. But what is often missed in corporate conversations is what “meaning” actually looks like in practice and how different it is from what organisations typically try to optimise.
Most companies today are designed around a simple assumption: if people feel happy, they will perform better. As a result, organisations invest heavily in comfort, perks, flexibility, benefits, and experiences that improve day-to-day satisfaction. This creates what psychologists call Hedonic well-being: a state focused on pleasure, ease, and positive emotions.
But there is another, deeper form of well-being: Eudaimonic well-being. This is not about feeling good all the time. It is about living and working in a way that is purposeful, growth-oriented, and deeply fulfilling. The difference between the two is not subtle. It is foundational.
A Hedonic workplace asks: Are people comfortable?
A Eudaimonic workplace asks: Are people growing, contributing, and finding meaning?
Research in psychology suggests that long-term fulfilment is not built on comfort alone. It is built on six deeper dimensions of a meaningful life:
- Autonomy (the ability to think independently)
- Environmental mastery (managing one’s responsibilities effectively)
- Personal growth (continuous development)
- Positive relationships
- Purpose in life
- Self-acceptance
These are not perks. They are conditions for human flourishing.
This is where the philosophical divide becomes important.
As Martin Seligman describes, there are two broad ways to live and work: the pleasant life and the meaningful life. The pleasant life is comfortable, reward-driven, and focused on minimising discomfort. The meaningful life, in contrast, is built on contribution, self-expression, and purpose. It often involves challenge, uncertainty, and effort—but it also leads to deeper satisfaction and resilience.
Most organisations unknowingly optimise for a pleasant life, but high-performing organisations are built on a meaningful one.
At HestaBit, this distinction becomes visible in everyday work. A developer completing a feature is not just meeting a deadline; they are solving a real problem for a client, strengthening trust, and contributing to the company’s long-term growth. An HR professional filling a role is not just closing a position; they are shaping a team, influencing outcomes, and building the future of the organisation.
However, meaningful work comes with a reality that many leaders underestimate.
It is not always comfortable.
Research on creativity shows that people who engage deeply in meaningful work do not experience only positive emotions. Instead, they experience a wide emotional range: curiosity, excitement, frustration, doubt, and discovery. The ability to hold both positive and negative
emotions is not a weakness. It is a marker of depth. This is the uncomfortable truth: A workplace that is truly meaningful will not always feel easy.
Creative, high-performing individuals often operate differently. They are intrinsically motivated; they work not just for rewards but for the satisfaction of solving problems, exploring ideas, and creating something new. They tend to reflect deeply, allow their minds to wander, seek periods of solitude, and intentionally design their environment to think better. They are driven less by external validation and more by internal curiosity.
In contrast, environments that rely heavily on extrinsic motivation, deadlines, pressure, rewards, and constant output measurement may increase short-term productivity, but often at the cost of creativity, ownership, and long-term engagement.
This creates a critical leadership challenge.
If organisations focus only on outcomes, they risk reducing work to transactions. If they focus only on comfort, they risk removing the very challenges that create growth. The real task is to align the challenge with the meaning to ensure that effort is not just required, but understood.
A target without meaning creates stress. A target connected to a purpose creates energy.
This is where leadership becomes decisive. Leaders are not only responsible for setting direction and measuring performance. They are responsible for creating context, helping people see how their work connects to something larger, how it contributes to real outcomes, and why it matters.
When people can connect their daily efforts to a broader purpose, something shifts. Work is no longer just a task to complete. It becomes a way to grow, to contribute, and to express one’s strengths.
Perhaps that is the most important lesson for modern organisations: people do not thrive when work becomes easier. They thrive when work becomes meaningful, when they are challenged in the right way, supported in their growth, and connected to a purpose that extends beyond themselves.
In the end, organisations do not grow only by making employees happy. They grow by helping people find meaning in what they do and by building systems where that meaning can turn into sustained performance.
The most important question this article leaves you with: Are you building a workplace where people simply feel good or one where they feel that what they do truly matters?
