Most of us derive two entirely different things from work. Both are vital. The first is income, the second is meaning.

I’ve been told that people who are given the opportunity for a guaranteed income manage to find their own meaning in short order. I would love to see this research, but so far it’s not been presented and I haven’t found it.

Involuntary loss of job is actually a risk factor for suicide. Back in the 1990’s, IBM began switching from its long-standing policy of a guaranteed job for life to a more conventional policy.

According to my wife, who was with IBM for 22 years and witnessed this unfolding, when IBM began encouraging people to leave the company they didn’t just offer attractive severance packages.

IBM also provided a (mandatory) two-week counseling process. The purpose of the counseling was to assure that the departing employee found meaning in life after IBM.

The reason this was considered so important was that IBM’s research had determined that employees who separated from the employer and did not have a continuing sense of meaning in life significantly elevated risk of suicide.

It didn’t matter so much where the meaning came from. it could be spending time with grandkids, volunteering in a church, or some other activity that involved contributing to other people’s lives. IBM was determined that each departing employee identify something of this nature before they were let go.

Being a large, highly successful company, IBM doesn’t like to waste money. The fact that they did this highlights the importance of meeting for people who no longer find it from their work. Research does exist supporting this. Indeed, one study found that “social exclusion could threaten people at such a basic level that it would impair their sense of meaningful existence “ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2717555/)

A guaranteed income does not and never will provide meaning, regardless of which form it takes. At best, it could offer people the necessities of life—if that. But meaning comes from our social connections, and if a guaranteed income replaces the loss of a job those connections will remain lost. Many of those who are about to become technologically unemployed will not have an IBM looking out for them. They will need a different way to find meaning in their lives.

The Citizen Income of a Celebration Society addresses the need for meaning by its very nature. It’s certainly not the only solution to this problem, but it is a solution.