One can access what they do in three different ways – a job, career or passion. The category a person belongs to largely determines their satisfaction with what they do. The first and very common way is to approach work as a job that needs to be done to ensure existence. This approach often contains the implicit belief that work is a necessary evil. With this attitude, people often have trouble motivating themselves to work, and they have a hard time doing their job compared to those who fall into other categories. The situation is somewhat more positive if a person approaches their work as a career, and is not solely motivated by financial compensation essential for survival, but also by the status, the possibility of promotion and the power that comes with the position itself.
Few people fall into the third category, that is, a group of those who perceive work as a passion and a source of pleasure rather than a means of gaining money or status.
To begin with, it is necessary to determine which category a person belongs to.
The next step to improving your job satisfaction is to review other factors that affect it. These factors include knowing yourself, job challenges, job diversity, knowing your options, a balanced lifestyle and a sense of purpose.
Knowing yourself – The first step in achieving job satisfaction is knowing yourself. It is impossible to be happy and successful unless we are aware of our strengths and weaknesses. It’s hard to be satisfied doing something we don’t have the qualities needed. In such situations, people can blame themselves for their incompetence and significantly lower their self-esteem. Instead, it is better to find jobs that require skills we are good at and find our place in it. In addition to competence, it is very important to know your personality traits and work style that suits you the most. It is necessary to determine the key values of a person and what motivates them, as well as what doesn’t. An extrovert will find it difficult to enjoy a job that requires occasional isolation, while an introvert will find it difficult to do a job that requires a lot of social interaction. Such demands on the job can be a factor that leads an introvert to feel emotional exhaustion and personal unfulfillment. In such a situation, the person withdraws into themselves and often becomes hostile and critical to the environment. A person strives to do only the minimum required to get the job done. The consequence is a feeling of guilt that only makes the situation worse and over time they find themselves in a vicious circle of dissatisfaction with the job that does not suit them.
To prevent these situations, it is necessary to analyze the job expectations and whether the person has the characteristics that a particular job requires. This kind of analysis, although implied by some in a job selection, is lacking in many and does not set adequate goals and expectations for them.
Job Challenges – A job must be challenging enough to make a person happy. A too-easy task can lead to a feeling of monotony and boredom at work, while overwhelming tasks can run the risk of feeling incompetent and inadequate. Therefore, the tasks that the job entails must not be too difficult for the person to solve, but still difficult enough for them to be challenging.
Job Diversity – In addition to the task challenges, job monotony also diminishes the variety of responsibilities. Even small changes in work can do a great deal to counteract the monotony.
Knowing your options – It is very important to keep in mind that the work we do is only one of the options we chose. By knowing our options we avoid having an attitude towards work as compulsion and we accept it as our own decision. This gives the person a sense of control over their lives that is necessary to achieve satisfaction.
A balanced lifestyle – Just as it is necessary to commit to a job to do it well, it is also necessary to take a break from the same and find time for activities that are not directly related to it. Sports, the arts or any hobby, while not directly related to work, can significantly enhance pleasure because they give us energy and make it easier to take a positive and optimistic attitude towards life.
Finding a sense of purpose in work – It is important to find meaning in what we do by linking it to the crucial values we believe in. That way, even in those moments when the preconditions for challenging and versatile work are not met, we can continue working with a sense of purpose and faith in some long-term goals. Without creating it, long-term goals could easily get out of sight and therefore job satisfaction could reduce significantly.
