Laura Biering, a professional coach and owner of True Voices and Corner Office Coaching in Atlanta, once asked her dad if he liked his job.
"He said he'd never even thought about it," Biering said. "Today, we all think about it."
 Photos by LEITA COWART/Special |
| 'As a culture, we expect more from work, but ultimately our job satisfaction is up to us. We're responsible for our own happiness,' said Laura Biering, a professional coach. Biering helps clients match their work to their personal values, such as integrity or family. |
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| William Carpenter, an architect and architecture professor, restructured his career to incorporate more problem-solving and more time for his family. |
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| Sue Steel, vice president for structured finance and asset-based lending for GE Capital Solutions, found fulfillment by participating in GE's community service and forming a network for female executives. |
The thoughts are not always positive. Fewer than half of workers were satisfied with their jobs in 2007, according to a survey of 5,000 people conducted by TNS (a marketing information company) and sponsored by The Conference Board. Only 39 percent of people younger than 25 were happy with their employment. Among people ages 25 to 34, 47 percent were satisfied, as were nearly 48 percent of people ages 35 to 44. Fewer than 45 percent of workers ages 45 to 54 were content with their jobs, while nearly half of workers age 55 and older expressed work satisfaction.
The average for all age groups was much lower than the 61 percent who said they were satisfied 20 years ago.
Ironically, "job quality is better now than ever before, but there is so much abundance in society that we don't see it," said Madeline Zavodny, associate professor of economics at Agnes Scott College. "People on assembly lines used to see the immediate results of their work, but it was often from long, difficult, back-breaking labor.
"Today, we sit at computers, and our work may be one little piece of a corporate big picture, but we don't recognize that's it's a better job, because we have higher, often unrealistic, expectations."
People take jobs for various reasons and with different motivations. Financial reward ranks high on the list for most. A paycheck is needed to cover life's essentials and extras. Others want a career with opportunities for advancement and promotion. For some — nurses and ministers come readily to mind — work is a calling.
Everyone wants to feel motivated, appreciated and amply rewarded.
"As a culture, we expect more from work, but ultimately our job satisfaction is up to us. We're responsible for our own happiness," Biering said.
When clients want help finding better work, Biering asks them to create a list of their values. The lists are endlessly varied and often include words such as integrity, family, intellectual stimulation or beauty.
"I ask them who they are at their core, what they hold most dear and what they would suffer most from compromising," she said. "If one of your values is beauty and you have a good job, but your workplace is a hovel, you aren't going to feel fulfilled."
If you value personal relationships and you spend your day behind a computer doing spreadsheets, you are going to be frustrated.
Once clients recognize their values, they can begin to look at past choices and honor their values by making different choices in work and life. They may put flowers on their desks; ask for new types of responsibilities; explore stimulating hobbies to balance boring desk jobs; or change careers.
"Once you figure out how a job is not aligned with your values, you need to take action," Biering said.
Changing focus
For William Carpenter, an architect and architecture professor at Southern Polytechnic State University who was coached by Biering, that action meant striking a better balance between work and family and expanding his job description.
"I thought success was making money and providing for my family, but I didn't have time for the relationships I wanted with my daughters," Carpenter said.
He knew he had expertise in designing buildings but was ignoring one of his core values, which was to take on new challenges.
"I love new challenges and solving problems in a creative way," he said.
Carpenter established Lightroom, a multidisciplinary design studio in Decatur, which designs commercial and residential buildings, Web sites and short films, such as those at the U.S. Postal Service's FakeChecks.org.
By rethinking the nature of his work and learning new skills, Carpenter created a varied workday and more personal time.
"I may be designing a building or a Web site, out on a job site, doing research, or overseeing production of a film," he said. "I'm solving big and small problems all day, and when someone asks, 'What did you do?,' I say, 'I had a lot of fun.' "
He said that the key to finding job satisfaction is to know what makes you happy. "It's never too late to learn a new skill, and you can define yourself at any age."
Measurable results
It can be harder to measure what you do and define success in today's shifting, information-age, global-economy workplace, said Cathy Perry, certified professional coach and founder of InwardBound, an Atlanta coaching firm.
"I worry about a work force that spends so much of its time in front of a computer screen. A person may be making $150,000, but his day revolves around the phone and the computer. Many types of jobs can be isolating," she said.
Clients who come to her for help in changing jobs often end up staying when they realize they can make adjustments and do more to be satisfied.
"We all have to understand our own contribution, especially when so much of work is done in teams. Folks may be on a functional team, a project team and a special task force. Those are all different roles with different objectives, and it may be difficult to measure performance," Perry said. "I ask clients, 'What is happening because you are on that team?' "
The answer may be that you're the customer advocate, who questions the impact of a new initiative; the negotiator, who gets members to find common ground; or the bottom-line number-cruncher.
When a job no longer satisfies, she suggests that clients get feedback from co-workers or customers as to how they are doing and that they then set their own goals and benchmarks for success.
"That can go a long way to increasing job satisfaction and, implicitly, results," Perry said.
Getting impersonal
Business schools already were seeing social disconnections and a more impersonal workplace in the 1930s, said Joe Astrachan, Wachovia Eminent Scholar Chair of Family Business in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University.
"Business schools told managers then about the lack of social connections as companies grew larger and more anonymous," he said.
The schools encouraged corporations to pattern themselves after family businesses, where workers had high involvement and motivation.
In today's rapidly changing environment, workers need their own intrinsic motivation, Astrachan said.
"If you're not getting positive feedback, you can have a hostile attitude towards the workplace," he said. "The best way to change is to find a group of supportive friends, people who do similar work and understand the challenges."
Ask your boss who does similar work or join a professional organization.
Job satisfaction is personal, said Sue Steel, vice president for structured finance and asset-based lending for GE Capital Solutions.
"You have to know your own personality and what makes you want to get out of bed in the morning," she said.
Finding a company that lets you use your skills and express your values is a plus.
"I feel very privileged to work for GE," Steel said. "There was never a glass ceiling. If I had the skill set and business acumen to do something, I was encouraged to try it."
The company's philanthropic mission to improve the communities it serves also fits with Steel's own desire to give back. Her job — to provide working-capital loans to customers to help them operate and grow their businesses — involves multiple skills and patience. The results of her work may take awhile.
The satisfaction of volunteering with co-workers to do community service, however, is immediate. GE supports Girls Inc., CARE and many other nonprofit organizations.
"Working with Mustard Seed Communities, we managed to get five medically fragile children from Nicaragua adopted here in the [United States]," she said. "There were a lot of pieces involved to solving that puzzle. It was a group effort, with a lot of our GE connections involved, and it felt great to be a part of it."
Last year, Steel founded the Atlanta Multi-Corporation Women's Network to bring senior female leaders from high-profile companies together for networking and service.
"We all wanted to make a difference and to make the corporate world a great place to come for young women," she said. "We do mentoring and are working with Emory's business school to design a women's leadership program. Volunteering makes you grateful for the space you're in, and working with the women's network is exciting. It's a group of like minds moving in the same direction."
To improve job satisfaction, Steel advises young workers to get as much education as possible to increase their work choices.
"Improve your job skills, mentor co-workers and carve out your own special projects," she said. "You'll find it brings new creativity to what you do."
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