Your Level of Job Satisfaction

What is your level of job satisfaction? Can you correlate it with your general attitude towards society?

As a full time employee, you will spend nearly one quarter of your week working at your workplace. This in itself is a large amount of time if you think about it, and depending on what you do, can be a bleak or positive outlook on your life. As for myself, I am a full time student so I am not currently employed, but I have been in past summers, full time, so I do have experience in regards to knowing what being employed feels like.

Needless to say, when I enjoyed my job, my take on life was a lot more positive whereas if I found my job meaningless, my satisfaction in life was much lower.

It's easy to see the correlation between your general satisfaction out of life, and how much you value your job. With this in mind, it can be stated that people who dislike their jobs, find it monotonous, or unenjoyable will find that their outlook on life is negative, are more prone to depression, low self confidence, and dependence on other variables to replicate the happiness they lack in their jobs. On the contrary, people who find value in their jobs, feel like they are making a difference in what they do, feel like they are part of a bigger, valued and progressive picture, enjoy their work, and come away more satisfied.

The attitude here on ATS towards employment is generally inclined to suggest that "working" is just part of the "system" whereas we work for our superior, selfish, capitalist overlords. Could there maybe be a correlation between your level of job satisfaction and how much you feel like you're "working for the man"?

So my question to you ATS (If you feel comfortable answering, that is) is: Do you feel satisfied with the job that you do? Do you feel like the 40ish hours a week you put into your labour brings you some sort of extrinsic satisfaction (other than a paycheck) and do you feel that if you felt better about your job (if you don't), you would have a better time accepting Captialist society?

Thanks for your time, I am just doing this out of curiosity.

Compared to our ancestors, this is cake.

Imagine living on a farm. You wake up when the sun comes up, make yourself some food, then begin your day checking on your livestock. Except its not really your livestock. It belongs to the lord who owns the land. Seeing that all the animals are in good order you and your family gather the tools you need for the harvest. You live on several acres of wheat producing land. Not your land - this land belongs to your lord. With bushels baskets and sickles in hand, you work row by row, acre by acre, bending over in the hot sun, chopping the wheat as low as you can. Emptying bushel after bushel you return countless times. You don't have any time to waste. Your lord demands X amount of grain this season - taxes have been raised. Whatever is left is for you to feed your family. If you do not meet the quota then you and your family will be removed from your land and another family will be moved in.
After 12 hours of chopping your back feels like you got kicked by a mule. Go ahead and take a break for lunch. lunch is stale warm beer from an earthenware jug and a loaf of flat bread. There is no meat - the animals don't belong to you. You skim a layer of scum and scoop dead bugs off your beer and enjoy. Things are going nicely. another day or two and you will be done with the harvest. Then you have to beat the grain from the stalks and winnow the wheat from the husks. Then you have to bag it and load it in your cart to take to your lord. Looks like you might not starve to death this year. But its hard to tell. The fences also need mending and the animals need tended to. If any wolves get into your pens then you will have to pay your lord for the loss of his stock. Time to go back to work.

so yea, work sucks. but its not as bad as it used to be.

For three years I was working at an infomercial TV station. All we did was receive tapes and play them back on air. I was one of four employees, and most of my work was done by 9:30 in the morning. In 2010, we were bought out by a christian group of stations. now, I get done with my work at around 9:15 am every morning, and I have to find ways to fill the rest of the day. they also fired two of my best workers without a second thought, and NO REASON GIVEN.

The station is under control of the new group, but Im kind of sketched out by them; because they request donations all the time, but we are charging churches to run their programs, so its like we are getting paid twice. they throw money around, all the execs eat together so they can write off the meals, but they dont ever take the people who actually work at the station with them, which is fine by me. I dont want to eat with them because they are not good people.

Id like to notify the IRS about their tax status because its like they try to call themselves a religious entity, but they are a business that has the ability to buy multi million dollar TV stations like they are candy.

I remember a time when jesus drop kicked the money changer tables in the temple. to me, he was mad about religion trying to run as a business, and I hope that the leaders of this organization have to explain themselves before they can get into heaven, because I just get this vibe that they are in it for the money.

So, i am not satisfied, but I am also pretty lazy and I dont want to have to move because this is the only TV station in a 50 mile radius.

I am an RN, working in ICU, so I have to say I am pretty well satisfied. I go home tired, stressed with my feet and back hurting, but I have a high level of satisfaction because I know I am making a difference in people's lives.
I grew up on a farm. Being a nurse beats working for a living any day(LOL).

If I have to have a job the job I have is pretty good. I'm overpaid, underworked and what I do helps an awful lot of people and everytime I can guide a person to their goal I really do get a little high of sorts.

I would much rather be back on the farm working with my hands in filth and pain 16 hours a day to produce food and other goods for myself and my family.

Taxes do not allow that. Taxes keep me stuck here behind this desk.

Today was my very first day in a new job - giving people with Alzheimers and their families advice and support.
The pay isn't good but all the staff I met today positively glowed with fulfillment. I'm hoping this will be me. Also that I can get fulfillment AND pay the mortgage!

[edit on 2-2-2010 by unicorn1]

I present "The Six Phases of Work"

The Six Phases of Work

Apply to any position. Humans weren't meant to spend their lives this way!

I work with autistic and behaviorally challenged middle school kids. I absolutely LOVE the hands on part of my job.

The politics and the fact that I literally go backwards every month financially because I make what would not be considered a living wage make my satisfaction level very low...

[edit on 2-2-2010 by captaintyinknots]

Hmmm. Job satisfaction and quality of life. Love the cat link above ^.

I like to break it out into decades.
0-10 being a kid is great, unless you are beaten by your parents and live in poverty.
10-20 is fun, unless you are beaten by your parents and live in poverty.
20-30 is full of love and discovery and the body is usually healthy.
30-40 you start making money and your career is pleasing for the most part. You form an active social life and travel and build a homebase.
40-50 You are making good money but life is less satisfying for men because they have a decrease in hormones while their wives are becoming hot sex kittens but with wrinkles so the irony catches up to you. Meanwhile those same wives find younger boyfriends who can keep it up longer anyway.
50-60 your parents die after giving you lots of stress and guilt.
60-70 you retire and wonder if there is more to life than what you experienced.
70-80 if you make it this long you are a cranky old person who gets pissed when little kids walk on your lawn.

So basically job satisfaction is from age 25-45 and since there aren't that many good jobs out there because the school system in the US is 100 years behing needs and demands then it's really a crapshoot.

I dislike the environment in my work place, I have some great colleges and speak to some great people.

I do have bad people or anrgy people that I speak to everday but they are not what makes my work difficult. I work in a call centre for the UK's biggest telecoms provider and they are more worried about how many calls we answer as opposed to the level of service we give.

This means we get it in the ear from the customer about poor service and in the ear from the boss about not doing it quick enough.

To get back to your question I have and do suffer from depression and my outlook on life is poor, although I relise this I find it difficult to change my outlook when faced with the same thing day in day out.

So I agree that poor working environment is linked to mental health.

I would be much happier surving off of my wits or living off the land althought no solution is perfect there has to be a balance. As much as I love technology I feel I was born 500 years to late.

Another thing about job satisfaction is that the job base has changed in the past 100 years.
Most countries in the EU are service sector. Which means they supply services such as telecommunication, housing, money transcations, education, transportation, health and food. Since the EU doesn't have any natural resources left this is how countries like that will continue.

Countries with natural resources have different job sectors. There are labor and speciality jobs available. And those are usually contracted out to foreigners.

I also think job satisfaction comes from levels of optimism and pessimism.

Well thank you all so far for your contributions and stories. I believe, as many of you can see, that the consensus is that there is a correlation between job satisfaction and outlook on life.

Unfortunately, many of you don't have jobs which you take satisfaction in, which makes me sad. However, I can assure you that there is a purpose to your life other than work, work, work. But when it all comes down to it, people who say "we weren't meant to have jobs" is kind of ignorant; that is to say, we as a society would never get anything done or allocate resources properly if we never worked!

I notice that many of you wish to live off the land. I have yet to experience what it truly means to be in the workforce, as I must finish my degree first, but I also have yet to generate a distaste for urban society. However, I do have childhood memories of being on my cousins wheat farm, and they are positive memories. But rest assured, the farm was highly industrialist and technological, with large amounts of advanced machinery.

I do believe that there are good jobs out there that can offer fair wages, and proper extrinsic satisfaction and motivation. Like everyone else, I want to go out and make a positive difference in people's lives, make decisions that will bring happiness and benefit to the general public, and assist others where I can.

However, these ideals are all aspects every standard human being would say they strive for, whether I actually go out and do the effort to help the people is left for my lazy body to decide!

Thanks again for the replies!

I am a firm believer that your satisfaction in life is directly linked to your attitude, and it doesn't matter what you end up doing for a paycheck.

I have a positive outlook on life. I believe I draw to me what I desire and need, and I love my job. It fills its purpose (currency to keep me afloat in our modern world) and because I expect to have return to me what I give out, that is exactly what I get each and every day.

For example, last year was the first year I was put in a supervising position. I was very frustrated in the beginning; some days my frustration spilled over, and the results were pretty awful days. But on most days, I project confidence( of course this is my third year now) and positive energy, and a kind helpful manner, and that is exactly what is returned to me, in each and every instance.

My job ironically is in a business where there is a lot of jokes made (food service) and high turn over. In my case, my customers are extremely wealthy, and I am pretty sure having to do my job would be a night mare for SOME of them. But most of them are where they are now because they possess similar mental skills as I do (they just have differing priorities than I do materialistically) such as positive thinking skills, so if we were to do a job swap, I would bet most would dig and succeed.

I hate to see poor mental attitude in the work place, and it is sad to see in the younger kids who have so much potential ahead of them.

If you know you have to work to survive, then have some self love and pride and do your job as professionally and as well to your ability as you can. Go above and beyond, and never let others poor attitudes hold you back. Always remember who the captain of your ship is!!

/mommy mode

Consider the day in the life of an average American: after spending approximately an hour en route to a job they don?t really find fulfilling (and that is when the traffic isn't so bad!), they whittle away at eight hours doing something that they are certain bears no relevance or significance to most everyone else, let alone themselves. The shallow justification: it pays the bills.

After another hour of driving to get home, they complement their drudgery with upwards of four hours of television programming, which is not only easy to do (it requires less brain activity than sleep), but provides a crude form of entertainment which removes the element of urgency and immediacy from one?s life. Congratulations, you've successfully relegated responsibility for creating experience to a machine. The remaining ten hours of the day allow for just enough time for a few meals and sleep. Rinse, repeat as desired. The moral of the story would be: you better be satisfied and find fulfillment with the career you're in, or you'll be hard pressed to make much room for it elsewhere -- after all, your kids are counting on you to be there for soccer games, recitals, and picnics, and your wife wants to be able to spend a few nights of the week together after an intimate dinner. Is this how we want to live?

reply to post by concernedcitizan


You paint a dark picture, but in reality, what other option is there? You'd have to be a fool to admit there was, at some point in history, a "better" time, and deny the fact that in the western world, standards of living have never been so high. But with that comes the unfortunate reality of complexities such as depression and illness.

But if you've got a solution to the current "American lifestyle", which means power and access to disrupt and revolutionize the entire global economy, by all means captain, please do so!

Also, it isn't mandatory to spend your few hours away from work infront of the television. You do have the freedom to spend it with your wife/husband, in the books, playing games, with your children, etc. It doesn't have to be mind-numbing television.

reply to post by For(Home)Country


A future consideration for human beings should be the way we spend our time. Most of our jobs can be done in a quarter of the time we spend on them, should we be willing to adopt more efficient methods and worry less about who is offended. Committees and multiple layers of management do not increase efficiency, but are there to protect the incompetent from recognition. It is more humane to send the incompetent to a different job than it is to make all of us adapt to the lowest common denominator. When economics is not the primary measure of an individual's worth, the stigma of moving to a different job becomes far less.

Currently, natural land has been reduced to approximately ten percent of usable land. This eliminates species, ruins natural regulatory processes including the production of oxygen, and ensures resource depletion. To reverse this process, we must reduce humanity to at least half its current population and thus land consumption. This places people in cities, where over half of the population currently resides. Were we to want a planet where every person could own a house, we would have to reduce our population to one-half billion. Further, we want to ensure that the smarter people in all cultures worldwide breed instead of the slower ones. We do not trust bureaucratic government to apply this policy. What makes more sense is to reduce all foreign aid from the first world, and to cease all outsourcing of labor and services from the first world. This will shrink the world economy and stop reckless growth. In addition, if we adapt a policy of putting culture before money, we can reward people for their inner qualities including intelligence and nobility of character, and therefore breed better quality people.
I have more. And I did state the "average person".