Today is the final installment of our Working Well Series. So I think many of you are familiar faces, you've been with us over the past few weeks and can't believe that we're already at the last one. I was looking at the calendar of events for the semester and it just, it has flown by. So I hope that you all enjoy this final session, Working With Meaning. So today, we're going to be going into what makes your work meaningful, why your why matters, and how you can work to really find meaning in your work each day. So first I just want to check-in. Many of us have, unfortunately, but very commonly, have lost the meaning behind what we're doing and why we're doing it. Personally speaking, I have been struggling hard the past couple of weeks just as the semester is wrapping up, I feel like I'm having like a delayed kind of response to the pandemic, just a lot of things. And I've had to really refocus and remind myself, okay, what is it that I do and why is this important to me? So because many of us lose that mean, it's important to check in. I want to tell a little story. This is something that I've heard in previous presentations that I think just really hits home with me. So have any of you heard the story about the janitor, who put a man, helped to put a man on the moon? So this is a story that I've heard that President John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA headquarters, way back when, when he was touring the facility, he came across a janitor and he had asked that janitor, what do you do at NASA? To which the janitor replied, I am helping to put a man on the moon. This is such a beautiful example of how our job, what we do is so much more than our role or our title. Ultimately, what we do each day is what we make it. So that meaning underneath our job, our responsibilities, at work, and even our role outside of work is really all about our perception and what we make of that. So that title of side, there's so much more beyond the surface that we really need to understand to help fuel us every day. So we're going to utilize the chat a lot today. And I really want you to try your best to participate when you're comfortable. The first question that I want you to think about is what makes your work meaningful to you? So if you want to just think on that for a moment, and when you have a thought, just go ahead and type that into the chat of what makes your work meaningful to you. So we have: Knowing that what I do is helping students, helping my colleagues ease their workload, Contributing to other people having an easier time doing their jobs, helping others, making an impact in people's lives. Helping people, that seems to be the theme right now. Assisting, helping, contributing, caring, serving others. So you can see that all of our meaning, the meaning behind what we do, is going to be unique, as individuals, but there's also some overlapping friends. Here are some other ones, when I can make time, someone else's work easier, when I can help someone's plans a reality. Knowing that sometimes just responding to an email quickly, even though I might not have the right answer right away, makes people feel important and heard. So there's nothing really about that title necessarily, but it's so much about what we're doing on a deeper level. So let's take that a step further, And I want you to consider why did you choose the job or the career path or the field that you are currently in? Why did you choose the job that you're in today? So I can share as people are kind of typing in. I chose my career path, the world of health promotion and wellbeing, because I knew from a very young age that I'd always wanted to help people in some way. That was very important to me. And I also very much enjoyed wellbeing and I felt like wellbeing, when we feel well, it just ripples out into everything else in our life. so some of your examples, I get to work in a field that I'm passionate about. That is so important and many people don't have that luxury of working in a field that they're passionate about. What we will discuss is that you don't have to be passionate about what you do to really still feel motivated and like it's meaningful work for you. Helping other people reach their goals. To be part of a collaborative group, affecting a larger community, To make a positive difference. Collegiate experience fits naturally in my abilities. So just thinking about, you know,, what it is, why you are where you are, helps us to uncover that meaning behind what we're doing. So think about what you put in that chat or if you didn't put a response in, think about why you chose the job that you were in. And you don't need to write this down, but I want you to reflect. Just think for a minute. Why does that matter to you? So if you chose the job that you're in because you're passionate about fitness or because that fits with your abilities. Why does that matter to you? Why? so what, right? So really digging through these layers to find that deep meaning behind what you do is so important. So that why, the answer to that question, it matters. There is lots of research done on the topic of, of purpose or your why. And I'll talk a little bit more about purpose here in a moment. But people who know their why or that deeper meaning, have been shown to have greater meaning and fulfillment in life. Greater life and job satisfaction, reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. So kink of like my example earlier, right, I have been struggling in the past few weeks, but when I was able to regain that focus of asking, okay, well, why am I doing what I'm doing? That really helped me to feel a little bit more fulfilled and happier, when I stopped to reflect on that. It can also increase your resiliency to stress. So when there are difficult times happening, which right now and for awhile there have been difficult times. We can reconnect with what means the most to us. And our why, knowing our purpose and living that out has been shown to just lead to overall improved wellbeing. So there are tremendous benefits to really understanding what matters most to you and why you do what you do. So what is your why? When we think about, well, what is my why? This connects to that topic of purpose. I'm not gonna go too much into the topic of purpose in here, but I will provide you with resources on how you can go a little bit deeper into this, this concept. But ultimately purpose, which is one of our foundations of wellbeing. It's that important, is the why behind how we choose to live our life. So I underlined choose because I want us to remind ourselves that we get to kind of choose what we're doing. We get to choose to say yes or no to things even if it doesn't feel like it. What is the why behind why we're doing something? Purpose is what matters most to us. So that could be a person, a place, a thing, what matters most to you as an individual, that gives your life meaning. Our purpose or our why helps give our life clarity and direction. When we understand why we're doing something or why we're living our life a certain way, it helps us to check in and say, okay, am I making decisions that actually align with what matters most to me? Or am I making decisions that align with what matters most to somebody else? And that's ultimately why I don't feel good about what I'm doing. This why, this purpose, again goes much deeper than that role or title. So we really have to kind of disconnect from, well, what is my title? What is my role and what am I doing within this position that gives my life meaning? I also want to note that your purpose, your why, can and will change over time. So ultimately, what meant the most to you when you were in middle school, high school, college is going to be significantly different as you get older, maybe as you settle down with somebody or start a family, or dependent on what your goals are in your life. So it's going to change over time. And that's okay. Which is especially another reason that it's important to take time to reflect on what matters most to you and what gives your life meaning. So having those check-in points with yourself to reflect, can really help to give you those benefits that we talked about on the prior slide. So taking this concept of working with meaning, what are some ways that we can find meaning in our everyday at work and ultimately too, in your life. So one of those examples would be to either rediscover, if you have already done purpose exercises or if this is a new topic to you to, discover your purpose. So when it comes to purpose, we can come up with our purpose in many different ways. There's no right or wrong way. But I'm going to show you some examples of what a purpose statement might look like. So some examples of what a purpose could be, would be to give back by mentoring and assisting others in my community. To be a loving and supportive parent to my children, to help make this world a better, kinder, more equitable place. A lot of what you put in this chat today, already kind of is written in a purpose statement format. So once we know that purpose, we can check-in and say, okay, how does this connect back to my purpose? Some questions you can consider to help you write a purpose statement would be, what matters most to me? How do I want to interact with others? Do I want to be kind, patient, loving? What am I able to offer other people? Do I like to mentor, help, teach, create? And then kind of weaving these components together to create that statement. So if you are interested in learning more about purpose, we are partnered with an organization that offers an app called Purposeful. This is an app that's available to all UD employees. If you have not heard of this yet, the information on the slide, if you just text, UDEL to the number on the screen. That's how you can sign up for the app or you can visit our website at UDel.edu/wellbeing UDel.edu/Wellbeing and navigate to the Purpose Page, to learn more. If you have any questions or difficulties accessing that, If you're interested, please send me an email or email Wellbeing@UDel.Edu And, but this app is excellent for really helping you to hone in on your purpose and just help you to stay aligned with that purpose each day if you need something to help keep you accountable. Another way we can reconnect with what makes work meaningful for us is to take time to recall your value at work. So we have to remember every single one of us. We are a part of University of Delaware for a reason, right? We were hired for a reason. So what is that reason? Once we know that, we really want to learn to fully embrace those talents that we have. So I want you to take a moment to reflect on the role that you play at work. So in the chat, can just be one example if you have a hard time coming up with one right off the bat, but what skills and capabilities do you bring to your work? What are some things that you have that make you valuable at this organization or just as an employee in general. We can just take a moment to put that in the chat. Organizational skills. I like that, Stephanie, I can clean up messes, excellent. Ooh, Excel guru. I love a good Excel spreadsheet. Self-starting, empathetic, organized, positivity. Yeah. So all of these things create meaning and these are things that are unique to what you're able to bring to the table. Just as a point of reference, this will be put on Canva, Not Canva, UD capture, where is my head today? And I can provide you with the PowerPoint slides too, since there are a lot of reflection questions in here. So just a question to dig deeper, to ask yourself is, how does that support your why? How does this value or trait support your why? Another way to bring meaning to your work is to gain a fresh perspective when things get tough. So take a moment to think about, right? What tasks do you dislike doing? Because I know for me there are tasks where it sometimes when I get around them, I push them off because I'm just like, really do not feel like doing this or I don't want to do this. It's not what I love to do, in the larger scheme of my role. So there are many things. So think about something that maybe you don't like to do. So I'll give you an example. I, for whatever reason, I don't love, I have to give like a weekly update to my manager at the end of each week of what I did over the course of the week and for whatever reason when it gets to the end of the week and I need to reflect back, I just have a hard time doing that. So it's very easy for me to brush off. Hold phone calls, is what Kelly said. Yeah, that's a tough one to do. Meeting minutes. So I know, every one of us, there's at least one task that you don't like doing. So when we hit that kind of point in our day where we are just like, I don't want to get this done. I don't see the point, this doesn't feel good. You can take time to reflect and say, okay, well, how does completing this task impact others? How does this impact the organization? So for me, if I don't like doing these weekly updates, I can say completing this task is going to help my manager to see what my workload is. And all the other staff in our department, what their workload is, to be able to decide, you know, are we programming the right way? Do we need to change things, which ultimately would help me, which ultimately comes back to helping the employees that we serve. Can also flip that and say, well, what would happen if I didn't get this done? How does that task align with your purpose? So again, when we get stuck and we feel like we're having a hard time completing something, reconnecting that back to something more meaningful. So going deeper. Asking yourself these questions can really make all the difference. Lastly, using your purpose to strengthen connections at work. So our social connections are so important and also really helps us with our work day to day, to be able to connect with each other and have that shared connection. So taking time to explicitly share your experiences and meaningful work. So anytime that you are able to take time to reflect on what you're doing and where you find meaning, simply just sharing that. And there's been times where I've said that to my coworkers, where I might say, oh my gosh, like I had a really hard time getting this done, but then I stopped to think about the bigger picture. And this is what I thought about. And it really helped me. That probably will help others to make them recognize, hey, I'm not alone in that feeling of, I don't want to do something sometimes. But this is how I pull myself out of that. If you are a manager or supervisor, taking time to talk with your direct reports about what aspects of work that they find meaningful. So learning about who is reporting up to you, what is meaningful to them, can really help you to coach them through their job. You can also build in times during your team meetings. And if you have regularly scheduled meetings, really just articulate the connection between what we're working on and the overall goal of, or mission of, your department, your unit, or University of Delaware, as a whole. We have those check-ins all the time where there might be sometimes that we do things in our department that might be more challenging and it's a struggle for us. But one of the thing that always helps me and our group is when our manager will say, you know, this is why we're doing this. So again, that why, what, what's the why, the reasoning behind what we're doing? That's what gives that fuel to get things done. Also helping somebody to access their why, right? Asking somebody, hey, what meaning and purpose do you find in your work? I'd love to hear about that. And in fact, that's what we're going to do now. And looking at the number of people on here, instead of going into breakout rooms, I want to open up the discussion to a verbal chat. And I want to hear from you all, what is the meaning and purpose that you find in your work? What value do you see in that? So if you want to unmute yourself and share, [Dana] So I can go first. So I feel like I'm I work with all of the fundraisers for the University, so I'm not a frontline fundraiser, but I feel like I'm the person behind the person. So I kind of do all the back work that helps them. And then it, it goes right to helping students, helping the colleges, helping UD as a whole. And we get to hear those stories, which is really nice. So even though I'm not the one on the front line doing the actual, you know, getting the gifts in and things like that, I know that what I do behind the scenes has a great impact on what happens. [Laura] Yeah. And what would happen if your job wasn't done? [Dana] Certain things may not happen. So, it makes me happy. [Laura] Good! [Laura] Anyone else like to share? [Darlene] So I'm also kind of a behind the scenes sort of person. I don't come up with the great ideas, but I help to make them happen. I'm the Events Manager. So other folks are the ones that come up with whatever it is they want to put on. And I kind of make it all work, so it's fun. I'm really fortunate, I enjoy my job. [Laura] And Darlene, I can speak to that because, you know, Employee Health and Wellbeing has leaned heavily on your group and presenting ideas and getting event space in Trabant and you really helped make that happen, so. If you didn't do your job, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. [Nancy] Darlene is very good at her job. I can attest to that. My job is kind of like like yours too. In that I don't usually present and things, but I kinda do a lot of background work. I look and see what needs to be done or where there is loose ends, or you know, supporting the staff. And it's really hard being home now because I'm not doing, I'm not interacting with employees like at the front desk or at the phone and I'm not with my colleagues, you know, so I don't know about you, Darlene, but I find it kind of challenging since we've been home in that regard. [Darlene] I do, I'm very grateful for weekly staff meetings [Nancy]That's my highlight of my week. [Laura] Has anybody else experienced that, that shift of it feeling more difficult being home and not around all these people to feel like what we're doing is valuable or meaningful? There is that challenge. [Darlene] For the most part, I'm not really doing my regular job. [Darlene] I'm helping a lot of other people. I mean, there have been a couple times where my job has been really important to know, gosh, we have to figure out XYZ or whatever. But most of the time that we had been home, I've been assisting other people. And it's interesting because I had, at many times, have not felt very useful. And then found out that the simple things that I'm doing, maybe for other folks, had been a huge relief to them. So that's great. [Laura] Yeah. [Darlene] Yeah, it's been, it's been very odd. [Laura] So you felt like you weren't useful until you discovered kind of what you were doing was how it was helping other people and that can, again, come back to that, that purpose and that deeper meaning behind everything. [Darlene]Yep. [Someone else] I can agree with what Darlene said. I work in athletics and our primary role on traditionally is to coordinate the travel for our teams. But of course, since they haven't been traveling, the past six months has just been a shift to some of our project work groups which was trying to plan on how to get the student athletes back to campus. So it was a complete mind shift from actively doing something that really had a huge impact on student athletes, in like, where they go, where they stay, to Ok, we're kind of stale for a little while. But then, now we were tasked with doing the, okay, how do we bring them back? So there was that little period where, of not knowing what we were going to do. To, okay, now your new role is to bring these kids back so that they can all be doing something. So that was a big adjustment. [Laura] Yeah. A lot of people shifted into new roles. That's stressful in itself, right, but to do that during a global health crisis and, and remotely is another layer of challenge for sure. Anybody else want to share anything related to meaningful work, before we close up for for today? [Jennifer] I will. I work in the CEEE office and we primarily work with teachers in the state of Delaware for economics and personal finance education, helping them incorporate lessons into the standards that they have to meet. And it's, you know, I'm like the rest of them. I do a lot of the behind the scenes work. Material prep, registrations, stuff like that. And I always find it... an example, this past weekend I was at a birthday party and I was talking to this lady who happens to be a teacher and has used one of our, has gone to one of our trainings. It always makes me feel good when I'm talking to other teachers, or my kids' teachers and, you know, I talk about what I do and they're like, oh yeah, we use the economics for kids lessons. We love them. So it always, it always makes me feel good because I don't get to see the training. Well I do now, now that we're virtual, I actually can attend more of the trainings we do. But it's always nice when I get to hear from teachers or my kids bring home something and I'm like, "Oh, That's what mommy does at work." So it's always, it always makes you feel good when you talk to the teachers that are getting the stuff that you're producing, and find out that they love it and it's helpful. [Laura] Yeah. If it's helpful when you get that feedback, when most times you're not really hearing that because it's kind of not the area that you're in. Thanks for sharing. Alright. Well, if nobody else would like to share, this half hour flies by so quickly, it's ridiculous. So thank you all for joining our last Working Well session. Again, if you have any questions or anything else that you'd like to add, you can always email me or our Wellbeing inbox. Wellbeing@UDel.Edu

Working Well: Working With Meaning

From Chelsea Finch December 11, 2020

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Working Well Series: Working With Meaning (Dec. 9, 2pm – 2:30pm) –Reminding yourself of your ‘why’ and finding ways to work with purpose each day is not only motivating but good for your overall wellbeing. In the final session of the Working Well series, Laura Gimbutas, Wellbeing Coordinator of Employee Health and Wellbeing will help you explore what matters most to you at work and how to use your ‘why’ as fuel to help you thrive.

Department Name: Employee Health and Wellbeing
Department Division: HR
Date Established: December 11, 2020
Appears In: Employee Health And Wellbeing

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