Career Tips - Issue # 32 (Aug 2006)

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Happiness at Work

Do you often look at the watch wondering how long you will be in office or you often get so absorbed in your work that you forget to look at the watch? Do you often find yourself silently complaining and feeling unhappy at work or you feel peaceful and contended? Do you feel internally driven to do the work or you do it in response to external forces like boss, customers, incentives, etc.? As you know, the answers to these questions are nothing but a reflection of something deeper: Job dissatisfaction and job satisfaction.

What causes job dissatisfaction and job satisfaction in the first place? To understand that let's make imaginary visits to the following four restaurants:

- Restaurant A: Generally dirty and unhygienic, and the food is also lousy.
- Restaurant B: Neat and clean, but serves lousy food.
- Restaurant C: Generally dirty and unhygienic, but the food is tasty.
- Restaurant D: Neat and clean and it serves tasty food.

After visiting A, you might say, "Never again!" You might feel okay to sit in B, but may not eat much. In C, you might complain about the cleanliness, but may eat a bit or even more. Needless to say, D is the place where you will enjoy both the ambience and food. You would patronise and even recommend it to others.

As you can see, two different factors affect your overall experience: the environment in which you eat and the food itself.

When it comes to job dissatisfaction and satisfaction, the situation is not too different. According to Frederick Herzberg's* motivation-hygiene theory, a person's overall experience at work depends on two different sets of factors:

1. Hygiene factors: These factors form the environment in which you work and include things like company policies and administration, supervision, boss, working conditions, salary, relationship with peers, personal life, relationship with subordinates, status and security. Based on his research, Herzberg found that these environmental factors are the main cause of job dissatisfaction (or unhappiness).

If these hygiene factors are okay, you would not feel dissatisfied (i.e., you won't complain), but that doesn't mean you would be satisfied and motivated to do the job. Herzberg found that job satisfaction (and motivation) comes from another set of factors known as "motivator factors."

2. Motivator factors: These factors are directly related to the job/work you do and include sense of achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and growth. He found these factors lead to job satisfaction as they are the source of psychological growth, a basic human need. When these factors are okay, people feel driven or motivated to work; you don't have to push them or dangle carrots in front of them.

To summarise, Herzberg research showed that the primary cause of job dissatisfaction are hygiene factors (the environment) and motivating factors are the primary cause of job satisfaction (motivation, drive).

>>CAREER TIP:A major chunk of waking hours and the life itself is spent doing work. No other logic is required to chase job satisfaction and avoid job dissatisfaction.

Here are some suggested actions to help you understand your situation and make it better.

1. Many times, when we are dissatisfied with our job or don't feel motivated to do the work, we start blaming ourselves, thinking, "Something is not right with me." So, the first action required is to stop blaming yourself. The causes are most likely somewhere else, not inside you.

2. Review the hygiene factors that form the environment in which you work. Look at the policies of the company you work for (are they irritating?), the kind of supervision you're subjected to, boss, working conditions, salary, relationships with peers, personal life, relationship with subordinates, status and security.

If these factors are not okay, they may be causing you dissatisfaction. Can you do something about them?

3. Next, review the motivator factors: achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and growth.

The sense of achievement is the number one reason for people to feel motivated and self-driven. Is your work too routine or is it challenging enough to give you a feeling of achievement?

Let me share one example: SAS Institute. The largest privately held software company in the world, SAS has the distinction of being in the top 20 of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Its employee turnover rate hovers between 3 to 5% compared to the industry average of about 20%. Why people are happy to work for this company?

Besides throwing in great hygiene factors (medical facilities, day care centre, basketball court, swimming pool, fitness centre, massages, dry cleaning, haircut...), the company takes special care to make the job challenging. If you do good work of handling a challenging task, your reward would be even more challenging work. That does the trick: SAS employees are self-driven.

Just try this concept yourself. Don't follow the crowd by avoiding challenging and difficult assignments. Rather, plunge into anything that seems to be challenging. And then watch how you start feeling internally driven.

The causes of job dissatisfaction or lack of job satisfaction may not lie inside you, but the responsibility to improve the situation lies with you. It's your job, your life and your happiness!

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2006 Atul Mathur***

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