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This article unravels a mystery. Why after decades
of trying thousands of employers from around the
globe cannot eliminate job dissatisfaction. Some
things can't be fixed or increased, unless you try
looking at it from another perspective. The solution
is so simple it's profound.
What enables your satisfaction on the job varies for
each person. It might be things extrinsic to your
job like the industry, work location, pay, benefits,
co-workers, working conditions, resources,
supervision and training, or it might be things that
are intrinsic to your job like the type of work,
your challenges and ability to influence results,
make a contribution, and the pride, recognition and
enjoyment derived from a job well done.
Simple enough, but what's often overlooked is the
fact your job satisfaction is dependent first and
always on having a job. It would not exist except
for the employer making it possible for you to work
and be rewarded, and this applies regardless if your
satisfaction is intrinsic or extrinsic. It's also
co-dependent on what you do in exchange for the
rewards the employer decides to offer or not take
away.
The
reality is you have no control over the employer or
the satisfactions they offer except by some form of
bargaining, by your choice of jobs and employers,
and your level of performance and whether it
influences the employer's decisions. This makes your
job satisfaction vulnerable to circumstances like
controlling bosses, management decisions, layoffs
and restructuring, but also to the impacts of the
economy, global competition, natural disasters, war
and terrorism. Jobs and the satisfactions they
portend could be here today but gone tomorrow, and
this explains why it's difficult to try and increase
your job satisfaction. It's also unreasonable to
think that employers can satisfy everyone all the
time.
Rarely do you think of these things. You do your
best choosing the right job and then you work under
the expectation that in exchange for your good
efforts and results the employer will reciprocate by
helping to make you satisfied. It's only when the
threat exists of losing your job, or when the
conditions and expectations change that you begin to
realize your job satisfaction is dependent,
conditional and vulnerable to things that are beyond
your control, and sometimes beyond even the
employer's control.
So
what do you control, and by this I mean
independently of any employer in order to have and
enjoy the career you desire? We've already
established your intrinsic and extrinsic
satisfaction is actually employer provided,
dependent and conditional, so it must be something
else, something deeper.
What you control exclusively in order to fulfill
your callings and purpose is your thoughts,
emotions, reasoning, talents and choices. Neither of
these things is employer provided or controlled. You
take them with you if you change jobs, careers and
employers, and they remain with you even if your
satisfactions are reduced or taken away. These are
the elements of your career contentment.
Contentment is a state of mind that exists
independently of employers, other people or material
things. In other words, you can be content even if
not happy or entirely satisfied. You do this quite
naturally by how you reason to recognize the
acceptable middle ground in any situation. The peace
that results enables you to think clearly, make
choices, and to deal more effectively with things
that are normally upsetting. Contentment provides
overlooked resiliency strength.
On
the job this strength and peaceful state of mind is
your career contentment. It is the source of your
effectiveness to perform and your ability to endure,
even job dissatisfaction. It is dependent
exclusively on how you think and is conditional on
your predisposition to recognize middle ground, but
also on your choice of work and whether it is
meaningful to the use of your talents and
fulfillment of your callings and purpose.
Career is the pursuit of contentment derived from
meaningful work, not just the pursuit of the
transient satisfactions that keep you dependent on
employers.
Contentment proves that you can live without the
transient satisfactions but not without your ability
to reason and recognize middle ground. Thankfully so
because nothing in this world is absolutely perfect
and not everything is likely to go your way, or even
the way your employer wants it to go. Not only do
you need contentment, it's more valuable to you than
mere satisfaction. You have to let this thought sink
in.
I
first started contemplating these ideas during the
mid 1980s when I worked in the brewing industry.
Sales were flat, the industry was consolidating and
we were laying people off. Benefits, bonuses and pay
increases were all reduced and promotions were out
of the question. I was young, aggressive and full of
complaints. One day my boss calmly told me that if I
was so unhappy I should leave and they could
eliminate my headcount and save someone from being
laid off. No way could I increase my job
satisfaction, but I quickly learned how to reason
and recognize my career contentment. To this day,
and despite some of the most despicable and
dissatisfying conditions, those were the absolute
best years of my entire career.
You
may not be entirely happy or satisfied with your
weight, house, car, job or spouse but you don't
upgrade each week either. You focus on the
acceptable middle ground, rainbow, silver lining and
light at the end of the tunnel, and you leverage
this state of mind to endure, make due and still get
things done, with or without being made satisfied.
Try living without this ability.
A
person who is content with their work will be more
inclined to tolerate the inevitable job
dissatisfactions, but a person who is discontent or
in the wrong job will leave despite your extra
efforts to retain them. This is why some people stay
in jobs despite the lack of satisfactions, or leave
highly desirable jobs for lesser satisfactions.
Fulfilling their purpose is more important to them
than fulfilling the employer's purpose, and they
can't be paid enough to ignore or waste their
talents. They are in pursuit of their career
contentment, and it may not have anything to do with
the job satisfactions.
You
can try but I guarantee you'll have a difficult time
changing the world or attempting to increase your
own pay, benefits or other job satisfactions, but
you can increase your career contentment any time
simply by changing how you think and reason to
recognize the acceptable middle ground. You do it
all the time but were never trained to apply this to
your career. You launched your career looking for
success and satisfaction, not contentment. Isn't it
about time to change your thinking? We've tried
practically everything else and even discovered the
grass isn't greener. And besides, once you get what
you want don't you eventually want more or something
different?
One
last thing: Don't confuse contentment with
satisfaction. They're completely different or how
else could you still be content if not happy or
satisfied? It's because these terms are used wrongly
or interchangeably that conflict exists between
reporting entities on the percentage of workers
currently dissatisfied. Estimates vary monthly and
range from 36%, 60% to 87% of workers being
dissatisfied. Whose right?
Many of the so-called dissatisfied are actually
content with their job and career, but are unhappy
with one or more satisfactions. That we fail to make
this distinction is a problem because satisfaction
is an either/or proposition. In other words, you may
have a good job and are well paid with great
benefits and working conditions, but if your boss is
a jerk, your entire job begins to sour and you think
you need a new one. What's missing is an
understanding of the acceptable middle ground. Once
you understand this, your world takes on a whole new
appearance and some of the dissatisfactions become a
bit more tolerable. This is a strength we can all
use more often.
We
pride ourselves on explaining employment and career
like never before. To learn more please visit our
website and while there join the campaign to retire
job dissatisfaction.
Copyright
2007 by Jeff Garton - All Rights Reserved
Jeff Garton is a
career coach, author and host of VoiceAmerica's
"Career Contentment Radio." His background includes
a career in HR with the Philip Morris companies. He
now leads the worldwide Campaign To Retire Job
Dissatisfaction. For more information, and to join
the campaign, visit:
http://www.careercontentment.com.
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