Your relationship with your work
A program for those ready to ask what their work has cost them, and what it could still give them.
Drawing on film, humanities and wisdom this program sets out to help us answer one question: How does our work impact our life?
Why The Meaning of Work?
To examine beliefs about work most professionals never stop to question.
To understand how our work and environments quietly shape who we become.
To think seriously about what it means to grow and not just advance vertically.
This 6-session program is an interdisciplinary inquiry into a fundamental question: “How does our work impact our life?”
In a world where the workplace is the primary site of adult social interaction, we often struggle to balance the “money” (economic necessity) with “life” (self-realization and human flourishing). The program draws on philosophy, sociology, literature, film, and collective human wisdom to examine work as a site of identity formation, existential negotiation, moral compromise, and genuine human flourishing.
The program moves participants through a deliberate intellectual arc: from unpacking what they assume about work, to confronting what work has actually done to them, to imagining what a working life that is truly worth living might look like.
By the end of this program, participants will have:
Examined how work has shaped who they are as individuals, as citizens, as a family person and as human beings.
Developed a personal perspective for what meaningful work looks like: one that dignity, self-respect, and contribution to something larger than a paycheck.
Arrived at their own honest answers to two questions: “How has work changed me?” and “How will I measure my life?”
SESSION 1
Our Ideas about Work
- Our beliefs about Work.
- Our Hierarchy of Needs.
- Work as Identity and Status.
Thinkers: Abraham Maslow, Barack Obama and Derek Thompson
SESSION 2
Finding Meaning in Our Work
- The Working Life.
- Work as Pilgrimage of Identity.
- Meaning at Work.
Thinkers: Karl Jaspers, David Whyte, and
Khalil Gibran
SESSION 3
The Work Environments
- Bullshit Jobs and Spiritual Violence at Work.
- Our Workplace and our Self.
- Alienation of Labor by Karl Marx.
Thinkers: Karl Marx and David Graeber
SESSION 4
(Moral) Compromise at Work?
- Work as a Moral Transaction?
- Does Professional Life Erode Our Values?
- The Impact of Work on One's Parenting Approach.
Thinkers: Hannah Arendt and Arlie Hochschild
SESSION 5
Other Ways of Knowing Work
- Ikigai: A Japanese Understanding of Work.
- Small Is Beautiful: Buddhist Perspectives.
- Islamic Perspectives on Work.
Thinkers: E. F. Schumacher
SESSION 6
The Place of Money in Our Lives
- Our Habits of Consumption.
- The Philosophy of Money.
- Work as Survival?
Thinkers: Thorstein Veblen and Georg Simmel
What This Builds in Your Organization?
Organizations retain people when they find their work meaningful. This program gives leaders and professionals the reflective capacity to make more values-aligned decisions and helps organizations prepare a workforce less prone to disengagement, quiet quitting, and the burnout that comes from work that feels hollow. It will contribute to the mental wellbeing, resilience and ability to cope with pressure.
Facilitator
Abdul Haseeb
Educational Consultant - Curriculum Design, Educational Leadership and Pedagogy.
Abdul Haseeb designs and facilitates intellectually rigorous learning programs across education and corporate sectors internationally. He is the founder of Edwise: Authentic Partnerships, a professional learning organization operating across Pakistan, the Gulf, South Africa, the UK, and the USA.
He brings over a decade of experience spanning educational consulting, leadership development, and training across Pakistan, Lebanon, and Qatar.
He holds an MA in International Development from the University of Warwick, UK.
Who is this for?
Corporate Professionals
Engineers
Doctors
Consultants
Managers
Program Delivery
Online / In-Person
Six live online sessions, delivered live, with readings and reflection prompts shared between sessions via LMS.
Program Fees
PKR 20,000
USD 150
- 6 Live Interactive Sessions.
- Certificate of Completion.
- Downloadable Learning Resources.
- Community Access.
FAQs
How is this different from typical professional development I have done?
Most professional development teaches you to perform better within the existing system. This program asks a more fundamental question: what is that system asking of you, and is it the right ask? It’s built on philosophy, sociology and literature rather than frameworks and checklists — because the questions it raises don’t have checklist answers.
Is this therapeutic program?
No. The program draws on multiple intellectual and spiritual traditions — including Islamic, Buddhist, and Japanese perspectives on work — as sources of insight, not doctrine. It’s a space for honest reflection, not counseling or religious instruction.
How are sessions delivered?
All sessions are held live online. Sessions are collaborative and discussion-based, not lectures. You’ll have access to readings and reflection notes between sessions via LMS.