ARE YOU SURVIVING… OR THRIVING?
Human beings come with the craving to seek out and find fulfilment, happiness and satisfaction. While on this expedition, the most common dimension that we tend to focus on is related to our personal life and not our professional life. After all, work is work and it’s more important to be skilled at what you do and tolerate it rather than love it, right?
If only it were that simple. You see, we spend a significant amount of time at work (about 1/3 of our lives) and incalculable number of hours engaging in job-related endeavours. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to actually focus on enjoying our jobs. Ask yourself: do you derive satisfaction from your job? Do you get what you put in? Is your job what you have to do in between holidays?
According to the Collins Dictionary, job satisfaction means, “The extent to which a person’s hopes, desires and expectations about the employment he or she is engaged in are fulfilled.” It begins right at the early years of life when we demonstrate competence and interest in a particular activity or first sense our calling. With the right guidance and parental support, we then get fast tracked into studying what we love and preparing for a career we value. However, there are those individuals who may not have been as clear about their professional passions and were likely to end up studying a subject based on their secondary school grades, which university accepted them or the choices family members made for them. This results in the ‘accidental’ versus the ‘intended’ version of you, which can cause much dissatisfaction and unhappiness in the long term.
Once we start working, there are certain job-related variables that contribute to a better working environment. This, of course, varies from person to person and across cultures. However, what seems to be relatively consistent is that, contrary to what you may think, financial incentives don’t bring the most fulfilling or sustained sentiments. There are other nonmonetary gains that have been identified as far more motivating than money.
Good leaders and managers are aware of the huge impact job satisfaction can have on employee wellbeing, productivity and profit so this topic has been deeply explored since the early 1900s. In fact, in 1924, a student from Harvard Business School by the name of Elton Mayo designed and tested one of the very first studies on workforce wellbeing, known as the Hawthorne Studies. These studies looked at how working conditions could enhance productivity. After in-depth scrutiny of results, researchers found that there are several factors on which job satisfaction rests. Employees do not want to be treated like a cog in a machine and performance depends on reinforcements other than pay. This idea gave birth to the human relations movement, which focused on understanding our needs, feelings, behaviours and attitudes at the workplace.
What other variables encourage job satisfaction? Although you may not relate to all of the points below, it’s a good idea to explore which ones tend to affect you more positively. • The work itself • The positive impact of your work • Pay and benefits • Your relationship with management • Psychological safety in teams • Job security and stability • Flexible working conditions • Having a voice and making decisions • Fair workload • Good relationship amongst colleagues • Positive and constructive feedback • Career development and growth • Work/life integration or balance • Interesting and varied activities • Mastering your skill
The ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius, expressed a wise point by saying, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” But according to Kimberly Russell, in her article ‘3 Lessons in Job Satisfaction and Work-Life Balance’, “you don’t need The Perfect Job — just one that has the following components:” • A short, reliable commute • Two or more co-workers you really like • Work that challenges you without completely de
stroying you • Supervisors who provide clear goals and unambigu
ous feedback • Work that allows for a sense of control
After reading this week’s article, ask yourself if you’re just surviving at work or actually making a difference and thriving. However, while it’s important to be mindful of job satisfaction in order to enjoy greater gratification in your life, you don’t have to completely revamp your career or redesign your occupational ecosphere to achieve this. Small changes and improvements could have a major impact on your level of professional pleasure. Why wait another day?