Is Honest Job Satisfaction Unachievable?

Ideally, but perhaps unrealistically, we hope to secure longing careers that we (a) enjoy doing, (b) are purposeful within society and, (c) are fulfilling in ourselves.

If you live in the North East of England, a study shows that this could be a reality for you, but for many UK employees, something is missing from their jobs; Londoners especially, with only 10% revealing that they were “extremely satisfied” within their roles. 

Not wanting to leave your bed in the morning, not because of the cold weather or because your car is out of bounds, but solely down to the work that lay ahead is a feeling that the majority of us have experienced. 33% of employees in a 2017 survey by The Qualtrics Pulse said that they were dissatisfied with their jobs…

If you’re a solid recruiter who is in the role to make a difference, you should be asking yourselves “what’s going on and how can I begin to fix it?”

If you are, continue reading!

Reasons why

The reasons why people start to doubt the company they are employed by can be personal to the individual's needs, or it can be patent within the company culture.

Personal factors could include a lack of purpose. Some job postings exaggerate the responsibilities behind a role and once the candidate secures the position and works a few weeks, they begin to see the cracks. If you are not transparent from the offset, your employees will begin to doubt both the role and the company.

For others, they might be longing to start their own business or to become freelance, feeling that as time continues they will never make the leap.

In some severe cases, it is the company themselves who are the culprits for your dissatisfaction. More often than not, this sense of displacement comes from within.

So what’s the dream?

A very obscure and battling question that some of us fantasize early on, whereas others stumble upon it later in life. What we’re not told when we’re young, however, is that it is hard to actually ‘live the dream’. In fact, in a 2018 survey, a massive 70% admitted to working within an industry that they have no desire to be in.

For most people, helping others or animals is fulfilling enough. Careers, teachers, and ecologists agree, as well as those within the public entertainment. The Leisure sector was once a doubtful profession, that would offer premium seasonal work and then drop you as soon as the wind picked up. Now, however, jobs within casinos are beginning to spike, offering work for more people and giving existing employees the chance to move up a rank. 

How to measure job satisfaction

A 2014 study recorded two decades worth of research into job satisfaction and found that none of the 6 ingredients that were concluded included income or simply “following your passion”.

What it boils down to a sweet mixture of:

1. Being good at your job

2. It directly or indirectly helping society

3. “Supportive conditions: engaging work that lets you enter a state of flow; supportive colleagues; lack of major negatives like unfair pay; and work that fits your personal life.”

Ultimately, it is up to the candidate to figure out a mutually fulfilling role that both their head and heart can agree on. As a recruiter, you can guide them by taking pointers from this blog and asking the right questions!