Deciding on what makes you happiest in your job is a profoundly personal process. Is your value assessment of your career linked to money, company mission, interpersonal relationships, meaningful expression of skills or talents, work freedoms, fame, ethics, giving to society, personal drive, to protect from a fear or previous hurt, overcoming a perceived deficiency, or some other unknown belief about yourself. There is only one person in the entire world that can define why you are in the job you currently are and that is you. Whether you hate your job or love it, only you have the power of choice on how you will fill each day you are alive. So choose wisely.
Workplace satisfaction across the company on all levels of the organizational structure is falling. Some articles show studies with metrics that say over 70% of Americans hate their job or the work they do. Experts everywhere will talk about all the various causes of it - leadership failure, corporate corruption, lack of business morals, generational culture changes, limited opportunities for employee development and promotion, globalization, politics, etc. Sadly the truth is all of these reasons are a variable in the equation but solving them will not provide the right answer. The only answer to any question is the individual. You cannot solve the problem as a whole because you have to solve it on an individual level.
Until workers find a way to make themselves happy in whatever career they have, there will be no end to the burn out and disappointment in corporate america or even small business america. As with anything in life, personal responsibility is the only way out. This is where a happiness survey directly linked to your job will bring valuable insight that can help you reach the light at the end of the tunnel. That is if you can face the fear, take on the ownership, remove all judgment of the situation you are currently in, forgive those you work with, and change your perspective to one of complete gratitude for your job.
This specific mindset is critical in helping you overcome the challenge you are facing and break through the resistance you will feel until you reach the other side. A job satisfaction survey is not designed to show you all the ways you hate your job. Instead, it is there to help you discover your job situation on a physical, mental, and emotional level as well as both the positive and negative things you need to become grateful for.
Take some time and really think about your job in the current state you find it in. Be completely present in this exercise and do not bring past scenarios or future possibilities into the equation. This might not be easy for you, but how can you have a true assessment of your workplace happiness if you muddy the waters with past or future situations. As you think about your job start writing down everything that comes to mind. Do not get caught up in the story, but instead pretend you are an observer just writing down the facts as you see it.
Then take these written thoughts and start breaking them up by the themes they represent. Use adjectives and things like enjoyment, boring, co-workers, challenges, respect, etc. Try to see the context of what you wrote and put some type of label around it. After that, group all the related topics together and see if you notice any patterns. If you do, write them down. If you do not, write that down as well. Basically what you are trying to do here is bring consciousness into your work environment as it relates to you. This will give you a different perspective of the situation you are in and help provide information on a possible solution.
You see, in life everyone is headed in a direction whether we want to go there or not. If you are conscious of that direction you can help it along faster or even hinder it. If you are not conscious, then either you just amble around and run into resistance everywhere or you allow others to decide the direction for you. Humanity evolved from a group mentality - are you still part of it?
Let us assume that you have the courage to break from the mold, are finally thinking for yourself, have full responsibility for all aspects of your life (reality), and are willing to take complete ownership of every experience you have. If you are no longer part of mass consciousness and a true free soul, then you should not have any problem looking at the list you wrote out of the things about your job and the themes/patterns they represent and asking yourself one critical question.
This job is part of the direction I am headed on, so what am I not seeing or understanding about the reason I am here and my growth opportunity around it?
Now listen quietly for an answer…