Job Satisfaction - Learn to Love Your Job

How to be happy at work? The answer: Be happy in your life.

According to a new study published by the British Psychological Society people, who feel generally happy in their lifes are more likely to like their jobs. On the flip side, those who are unhappy in life are unlikely to be experiencing job satisfaction. Also, looking for a new job is probably not the solution as those dissatisfied with their lifes will probably find something wrong with the new job, too.

So, what can you do? Psychologists still discuss and research the genetic component of happiness. However, it's never genes alone.

People, who are unhappy in life and in their jobs have most likely learned certain thinking styles, behaviors, and expectations that hinder them to achieve happiness. Possible causes could be for example black and white thinking and perfectionism (if it's not perfect, it's awful), unrealistic expectations, focusing on negative aspects and neglecting positive events and so forth.

The good news: As these thinking styles, behaviors and expectations are learned, they can be unlearned.

Written by Life and Career Coach Christiane Turnheim. Christiane teaches psychology at a community college in the Boston area. To contact her, visit her website www.coach4u.net

What are the key factors that keep people happy in the workplace?

One would assume that this should be an easy question to research, however studies about this topic yield different results. For one, researchers use different questions in their surveys. Another reason is that not all studies analyze the results by age groups. Generally, younger workers tend to be less satisfied with their jobs than older workers and they do have different expectations.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) annually surveys employees and HR professionals about job satisfaction.

The Top 5 Job Satisfaction Factors for Employees are according to the 2009 Survey report :

Job Security
Benefits
Compensation/Pay
Opportunities to use skills and abilities
Feeling safe in the work environment

The HR professionals in this study agreed with ' Job Security' as top priority, and they also included 'Benefit's and 'Opportunities to use skills and abilities' among the top 5 factors. However, on rank 2 they put 'Relationship with immediate supervisor' and on rank 4 Ccommunication between employees and senior managemen't.

Salary.com Inc. found that employers overestimate the job satisfaction levels of their employees. According to the 2008/2009 Employee Satisfaction and Retention Survey by salary.com, about 65 % of employees said that they are somewhat satisfied with their jobs. Employers believed this number to be 77%.

Key Factors for staying in the job are according to the study:

Good relationships with co-workers, job security, desirable commute and desirable hours. Good relationships with managers and adequate benefitswhere this time not among the top reasons why people remain in their jobs.

Top reasons to leave a job are according to the survey inadequate pay, insufficient recognition and not enough development opportunities.

In my college classes, I usually give my students also a questionnaire about important job satisfaction factors. Most of my students are in their 20s, which means they belong to the group of the most unhappy workers in the US - at least according to the results of most major surveys.

The top 5 key factors for job satisfaction according to my students are:

Pay
Benefits
Relationship with supervisor
Relationship with co-workers and, normally not included in surveys
Humor/ having fun at the workplace

Perhaps this is the difference between todays young people and the rest of us workers. Young people want to enjoy the time they spend at work, while previous generations are more achievement oriented or only work to make a living.

Why do you work? What are the most important key factors for you? What motivates you? What can you do to improve a dissatisfying job?

Find the answers in my new eWorkbook: Job Satisfaction - Learn to Love Your Job!
Purchase at http://www.coach4u.net/products-page/checkout

Written by Christiane, Life Coach and Psychology teacher at a Massachusetts Community College. Contact her via www.coach4u.net.

Recently, I read in the newspaper that some companies provide free pizza or ice cream to their employees to keep them happy in face of the still dismal economic situation.

In these days many companies are reducing the size of their workforce and also are cutting benefits. The remaining employees are left to deal with two pressures: the anxiety that the next round of layoffs will include them and with an increased workload because they inherit some of the tasks of those who got the pink slip.

Therefore, morale is down in many companies and management is looking for new ways to lift the spirits again. Free pizza or cook-outs are supposed to show appreciation and foster loyalty to the company during bad times.

I'm wondering whether this is really working. Personally, if I felt that my job is not secure and I might get laid off, no free pizza would keep me from looking for alternatives. On the other hand, if I'm satisfied with my job and the company in general, I wouldn't need free pizza to boost my work morale.

However, a relaxed get-together with co-workers might actually be nice and foster the feeling of being "one big family". What do you think?

According to a new study, employers have no reason to be concerned if they hear occasional laughter coming from the work areas. On the contrary, they may even want to encourage the use of humor at the workplace, because it increases job satisfaction.

The Australian psychologist Maren Rawlings surveyed 300 workers from 20 different countries. She found that employees, who worked in a humor climate, were more satisfied with their jobs than those, who worked in a humor free climate or in a climate with negative humor like making fun of co-workers to put them down.

Previous studies have demonstrated that employees with high job satisfaction are more likely to stay in their company and are more productive.

Rawlings concludes: "If employers take measures to encourage a positive humor climate in the workplace, they are more likely to retain their staff. And with an ageing workforce it is vital for companies to keep good people."
(from http://www.swinburne.edu.au)