Is Purpose a Luxury?
© Rich Baker
Personal purpose, professional pressure, and the quiet search for meaning at work.
A little while ago, I had one of those conversations that starts off being about someone else — and ends up following you home.
A colleague was reflecting on her next move. She wasn’t lost, exactly. But nothing felt quite right. So I reached for a tool I’ve used before: ikigai.
Ikigai is a broad Japanese idea associated with what gives life value and meaning. The four-question model I used with her is a later Western adaptation: what do you love, what are you good at, what does the world need, and what can you be paid for?
The overlap is your purpose. Or, if you’re being practical about it — a direction that feels good and pays the bills.
As we worked through it, she began to light up. Possibilities surfaced. A sense of direction started forming. But what struck me wasn’t her answer. It was the tension just underneath the surface of the conversation.
Because more and more, I hear the same quiet question behind conversations like this: Is purpose something we’re still allowed to want?
Or has it become a luxury — something reserved for people with fewer bills and more options?
The pressure to choose between meaning and money.
Let’s be honest — 2025 hasn’t exactly rolled out the red carpet for reflective career choices for many. Rising costs. Stagnant pay. Roles that expand but with fewer resources. Even the most driven people are doing the maths. And the data backs it up.
In an August 2020 survey of 1,021 US employees, McKinsey found that 70% said their sense of purpose was defined by their work. I would I say I partly fall into that category; being a dad beats everything else but work is certainly very important to me.
In short: if people aren’t abandoning purpose, maybe they’re just quietly parking it? Until the mortgage is sorted. Until the market improves. Until it feels safe again to care that much.
But purpose isn’t optional.
It might feel like a luxury, but the science says otherwise. A growing body of research associates a stronger sense of purpose with better physical and mental health, greater resilience and fewer depressive symptoms. In one US study of adults over 50, those with the strongest sense of purpose had a 46% lower risk of death over the following four years than those with the weakest sense of purpose.
Dark, yes. But compelling isn’t it?
In the workplace, it’s the same story. A systematic review of 71 empirical studies found that meaningful work was associated with outcomes including higher engagement and commitment, greater intention to remain, and better wellbeing, while also finding a more mixed evidence base around performance.
Gallup’s research also links stronger connection to organisational purpose with lower turnover. Employees who feel connected to their organisation’s culture are also more likely to recommend it as a place to work.
So yes — while purpose might seem optional, the absence of it can quietly cost organisations more than they realise.
When organisational purpose doesn’t land.
The challenge isn’t always a lack of purpose — it’s often a lack of alignment. Globally, only one in three employees strongly agree that their organisation’s mission or purpose makes them feel their job is important. The rest? They’re doing the work. But not necessarily believing in it.
And it’s not that they’re disengaged in the classic sense. They’re just disconnected.
They show up. They deliver. But the bright light’s gone a little dim behind the eyes.
We see this when organisational purpose (or values, for that matter) becomes a poster on a wall. Or when a leader talks about purpose with conviction — and then acts in a way that completely contradicts it. That’s the say–do gap in action. The unspoken “do as I say, not as I do” dynamic. And it’s where belief quietly breaks down. Because no matter how compelling the message, people are always watching behaviour.
The disconnect isn’t always deliberate. But it’s deeply felt. And once people stop believing in the purpose, they stop giving you the benefit of the doubt.
What leaders can do.
If you’re leading a team, you can’t manufacture purpose for people. But you can help them find it — or create space to rediscover it. Try;
Showing the impact. Even in the smallest of tasks, there’s often a human outcome. Help your team see it.
Making time for reflection. A quiet moment in a team meeting. A story. A well-placed question. Not everything needs to be a TED Talk.
Giving people some choice. Autonomy matters. Let them shape the work in a way that lets more of their purpose come through.
Avoiding the buzzword trap. If your company values include “integrity,” “collaboration,” and “value creation,” you might already be in trouble.
And if you’re in internal communications, this is where we really earn our keep.
Because comms people are often the first to notice the drift — between what’s said and what’s felt. And we have more power than we think to course-correct.
Make purpose tangible. Tell real stories. Show where the values actually live — not just in leadership, but on the floor, in the field, in the daily stuff.
Equip leaders with the right words. Not scripted lines. Just clarity, conviction, and a bit of human language.
Create space for reflection. Whether it’s a campaign, a colleague story, or a line in a town hall — give people the chance to reconnect with their ‘why’.
Hold up the mirror. If the purpose is out of sync with reality, we can help close the gap. Gently, but firmly.
We don’t own the purpose. But we do shape how it shows up — in tone, in timing, and in trust.
A final thought
So — is purpose a luxury?
In some ways, yes. When the cost of living rises and everything feels fragile, choosing meaning over money can seem… idealistic or even foolish.
But in other ways, it’s not a luxury at all. It’s a quiet human need. And it doesn’t have to be grand. For some, purpose is changing lives. For others, it’s building something well. Supporting a team. Solving a problem. Just making something better than it was.
The trick is helping people feel that matters — even when things are tough. Because when people connect to their purpose — when they feel that their work has meaning, even in small ways — they don’t just perform better.
They show up differently.
They stay longer.
They care more.
And if we care about performance, trust, resilience, culture — we should care about that too.
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