“If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife.” So sang Jimmy Soul, but as the husband of a rather attractive woman, I take issue with his entire approach. In fact, research suggests that one of the key determinants of overall happiness and satisfaction is enjoyment of your job. This should be obvious, after all, most of us spend at least 35 hours a week at our jobs, and yet to many, the idea that work could be enjoyable and rewarding seems anathemic. Enormous numbers of people slave away for their entire working lives, frustrated and bored, but without any sense of what sort of work would be a more positive experience for them, still less a plan to find work of that sort.
Our culture, the capitalist values system, and our education all focus us unduly on one thing; making money, and yet money is not a significant contributor towards happiness. Richard Easterlin's researchi showed that job satisfaction is not dependent upon salary, and indeed, that it is only for the very poor that more money has a significant impact on happiness. This illustrates effectively Vroom's ideas about the seperation of satisfiers (factors without which we will be unhappy) and motivators (factors which, by their presence, make us enthusiastic and motivated). We need enough money to pay the bills in order to be satisfied, but lots more will not, in itself, make us motivated or happy.
What, then, are the factors that are necessary for work to contribute to our happiness? I suggest there are three. Firstly, the work we do must provide what we most value. Depending on personality type, that might be that it makes a positive contribution to the lives of others, that it gives us status, that it is intellectually challenging, physically demanding, or a host of other features. Secondly, it must be something we are passionate about. That might mean that it involves children, or art, or food, aeroplanes, fashion, travel or any of the myriad things that inspire us. Finally, we must be able to do it well; delivering poor quality and struggling to keep up don't just threaten your employability, they damage your ego.
To identify the first, think about the aspects of the jobs that you've had which you've enjoyed, and would have liked to do more of. Was it highly detailed work, the opportunity to be creative and think freely, interacting with others and building teams? To identify the second, ask yourself this; if you were to stay up until 2 in the morning, talking endlessly about one thing, what would it be? What do you read books about, buy magazines about, think about when your mind is free and you're staring out of the window? To identify the third, ask yourself what you have been recognised and rewarded for; what have people told you that you're good at, where have you felt that your performance was excellent? Sometimes, we can work for many years without utilizing our greatest gifts; I, for instance, was praised throughout my school life for my writing, but was 33 before I found (or even looked for) opportunities to use it in the workplace, never mind to be paid specifically for it! Take time to reflect on all the feedback you've had throughout your life on your strengths, and consider how they could be developed.
Where these three factors meet, you might just find your perfect job; something you enjoy doing, in an area of work you're passionate about, where you can do an excellent job and come home feeling you've contributed. Don't be afraid to develop yourself towards such a job, particularly if you haven't found opportunities to use your strengths in the workplace, or to hone those skills in ways which suit the areas of work you've identified. After all, if you're spending upwards of 35 hours a week doing something you don't care about and actively dislike, why not invest just a little more so that in future, those hours can be spent more enjoyably?
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