25% S’poreans say “work” gives them meaning in life; Netizen asks, “A quarter of us don’t have anything more meaningful in life than to work?”

The results of a study from 2021 have raised a few eyebrows, after a tweet showing how many people in a given country say that it is work that gives life meaning.

In Singapore, the study showed, 25 per cent of the respondents surveyed mentioned “their occupation and career when describing what gives them meaning in life.

The study, titled “What Makes Life Meaningful? Views from 17 Advanced Economies” was carried out by the US-based Pew Research Center for the Spring 2021 Global Attitudes Survey.

Journalist and podcaster Matthew Yglesias tweeted that it was an, “Extremely stereotype-defying survey.”

Extremely stereotype-defying survey pic.twitter.com/IZXeScbpM0

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 17, 2022

The survey showed that in Singapore, family ranked number one when respondents were asked what gives them meaning in life, followed by work, society, material well-being and friends.

The tweet was then posted on r/singapore, where Singaporeans weighed in.

One said that “it’s no surprise asian countries rank so low on this list — we’re grossly overworked and few here derive any joy from it.”

Another netizen agreed with this.

“I looked at 25% and instead thought it was too high! A quarter of us don’t have anything more meaningful in life than to work?” another wrote.

One chimed in that how meaningful work depends on the type of work they do.

Another wrote that “the most meaning in life is gotten from petting the hdb void deck cat, rather than from slaving for some corporate entity to achieve dem gdp gains.”

In a reflection on current housing issues, another wrote that “BTO is the meaning of life.”

One said that they were “more curious about how the 25% managed to” find such value in work.

Yet another pointed out that “your job is an integral part of your life – so much so that when you retire and someone asks ‘what do you do?’ You’ll typically hear ‘I’m a retired teacher’ or ‘I’m a retired train driver.’

Like it or not you’ll spend a massive chunk of your life doing work, so finding some meaning in it is better than hating it for decades in my opinion.”

/TISG

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