Career Satisfaction

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Career Satisfaction
What makes us happy at work?

When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.
Boredom and Happiness at Work

Results of a PCP poll for the TDA[1] on 2113 graduates aged 21 to 45.
The Happiest Professions
Boredom Rating for Graduates (out of 10):

Administrative/Secretarial jobs Manufacturing jobs Sales jobs Marketing/Advertising IT/Telecommunications 10 8.1 7.8 7.7 7.5
According to the City & Guilds Happiness at Work Index some of the happiest graduate jobs were (in order): doctor dentist armed forces teachers leisure & tourism jobs journalists accountants lawyers marketing PR & advertising staff nurses HR staff architects,
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Science Research & Development 7.3 Media Law Engineering Banking/Finance Human Resources Accountancy
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7.1 6.9 6.9 6.6 6.6 6.3
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Hospitality/Travel Healthcare Teaching
5.3 5.1 4.0
computing staff bankers
This survey was commissioned by a teaching agency!

Teachers were the least bored. 81 per cent of teachers questioned said it is the challenge of the role, 81% because no two days are the same, and 86% said they enjoy the interaction with people. 64% also rate the opportunity to use their creativity. Employees surveyed say they are mainly bored because of the lack of challenge in their jobs
Some of the least happy professions were apparently:

social workers civil servants estate agents secretaries administrators I'm not sure how reliable this survey is but I'd suspect that some of the factors at work
(61%), not using their skills or their knowledge here would be people contact, 60% and doing the same things every day (50%) money, job security & autonomy. So what do we make of the apparent contradictions here? Of course, such surveys are never particularly accurate, and boredom and happiness are different measures. Teachers may be the least bored, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they are particularly happy in their jobs!
Well-being
An excellent survey on the well-being of Plymouth University students and graduates by Dr. Glen Crust and Dr. Helen Hicks found that students with the highest well-being were those on medical, nursing, pharmacy and teaching courses whereas students with the lowest well-being were those on finance, law, management and economics courses. You can find the full survey results here[2]. Well-being was measured by amalgamating scores for: "how satisfied you are with your life"; "the extent you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile"; "how happy you felt yesterday" and how anxious you felt yesterday (inverse).
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Occupations with the highest well-being included health professionals such as physiotherapists, nurses, midwives, podiatrists and paramedics, further education teachers, surveyors, accountants and management consultants. As you might expect, graduates who got the type of work they wanted were happier than those who only had one job offer which they had to accept. Graduates with first class degrees have on average a higher well-being than those with 2:1s, who have a higher well-being than those with 2:2s and thirds. This may well be because graduates with higher degree classes tend to be in better or more appropriate jobs. Women graduates report slightly higher levels of well-being on average and white graduates were found to have higher well-being scores than Black/African/Caribbean/Black British respondents.
Are employees of small businesses and the self-employed more or less satisfied?
A survey by the TUC found that employees in small businesses are more satisfied at work. They were also found to be the most committed and loyal to their organisations. They also felt most engaged by their employer and had the most freedom to choose their working patterns. There were far fewer reports of bullying, lower stress levels and less complaints about long working hours. The Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses said "In terms of the way they treat their staff, small businesses consistently out perform their bigger competitors. Small business owners know that the greatest asset is their staff and they are more likely to treat them as individuals and recognise their needs. By having a committed and loyal workforce that has a say in how the organisation is run, the smallest business has a bigger advantage." Having said this larger organisations do tend to offer higher initial salaries, better training and more chance to specialise. See our page on Working in smaller organisations [3] People who have set up their own business tend to be happier. They take responsibility for their own future, and take control of their own destiny. Self employed people are happier about their work-life balance even though they work the longest hours - because they have more control over their time. See our self employment
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page[4] for more about this.
Research by Sonya Lyubomirsky (University of California) using data for over 250,000 people found that being happy lead to higher incomes, greater productivity and quality of work, more satisfying and longer marriages, more friends, stronger social support, and richer social interactions, more activity, energy, and flow, and better physical health. A study in 2007 by Nattavudh Powdthavee[5] found that meeting regularly with friends, relatives and neighbours had the same effect on your happiness as a large increase in salary. Being married or living together was also highly beneficial.
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Commuting
Some new research by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).has found that people who spend between an hour and 90 minutes getting to work each day are more miserable than their colleagues. and people travelling by bus are even more unhappy. Commuters have on average lower life satisfaction, a lower sense that daily activities are worthwhile, lower levels of happiness and higher anxiety than non-commuters. People who worked from home had higher personal well-being even compared to those who commute for less than a quarter of an hour. HR Grapevine Article: Commuters want to cry by the time they get to work
Other factors reducing happiness at work include:

Long working hours Having to relocate to a new area to get a job (as you lose some contact with friends and relatives) Tight deadlines Lack of control Being unemployed.
Green spaces
Researchers at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health [6] found that living in an urban area with green spaces has a long term positive impact on people's mental well-being. Moving to an area with green spaces had a sustained positive effect, whereas pay rises or promotions, only gave a short-term boost to happiness. People living in greener urban areas show less signs of depression or stress.[7]
How important is money? The Easterlin Paradox

The economist Richard Easterlin found a paradox: high incomes do correlate with
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happiness, but long term, increased income doesnt correlate with increased happiness. Researchers examined 37 countries over the long term (measurements were made over 22 years) and found that happiness ratings within a country didn't increase with income. In China, S. Korea, and Chile, per capita income doubled is less than two decades yet all these countries showed slight declines in happiness. Easterlin said[8] "We may need to focus policy on urgent personal concerns such as health and family life, rather than on the mere escalation of material goods."
Money is surprisingly not particularly important once you have enough to meet all your basic requirements. Extra money doesn't make you much happier. A pay rise does make you happy but only for a short while as you quickly become adapted to it. This is because we rapidly get used to what we have (see the hedonic treadmill below). In the UK, life satisfaction has decreased since the 1970s despite a 60% rise in Gross Domestic Product in that time, again showing that buying and
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owning consumer goods makes no difference to well being. In 1998 Bhutan allowed in television and the Internet into the country for the first time (previously they had been banned). This lead to an almost immediately increased craving for a Western lifestyle and products and an increased dissatisfaction with life - see the hedonic treadmill below. A new job, house or car gives a short term boost, but quickly get accustomed to it. Having your finances under control (e.g. not being in debt) is more important than a large wage, although earning less than most of the people you know also affects your happiness (keeping up with the Joneses). There is a higher occurrence of depression in those who think happiness comes via money, fame, and beauty. After several years lottery winners revert to their previous levels of happiness.[9]
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Winning 1M doesn't add to self esteem, in fact, after a short term boost in happiness most lottery winners go back to their old levels of happiness and sometimes even lower as they no longer have their old goals to aim for. They feel a sense of hollowness that may make them want to work again. Some recent research [10] found that mice preferred treats that they had to work harder to get suggesting that the old adage; The harder you work for something, the more you appreciate it. is true for animals as well as humans! The real value of money lies in it's power to buy you freedom and security. By saving money you also partially insulate yourself from stress.
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Money DOES buy: security ( = greater freedom from stress) autonomy more time to enjoy life greater freedom to do what you want the chance to educate yourself and to enrich your life, for example, by travel the ability to help others who have less than you have. If however after reading this, you do still wish to become a millionaire, according to a survey by Spears and Wealth Insight[11] the most common degrees to achieve this are, in order: 1. Engineering 2. Economics 3. Business Administration 4. Commerce 5. Accounting 6. Computer Science 7. Finance 8. Politics The best universities to attend to become a millionaire were in order: Harvard, Stanford, California, Columbia, Oxford, MIT, New York, Cambridge, Pennsylvania and Cornell. The universities which dominate are exactly the ones youd expect, not just because of the quality of the education but because of the self-confidence they instill in their students . They also have strong alumni networks.
Bonuses
Rewards such as bonuses provide a short term boost to performance but ultimately reduce long term motivation. Performance related pay and the carrot and stick approach have little or no long term value in motivating staff[12]. Research from the Institute of Leadership & Management[13] found that few employees said that bonuses motivated them to work harder. According to those surveyed the most important motivators were: 59% felt enjoyment of the job was the most important motivator
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49% how much they are paid. 42% getting on with colleagues was the best motivator 22% being treated fairly by their managers 22% autonomy: how much control they have over their work Only 13% of employees said that bonuses motivated them to work harder. Getting regular feedback, allowing staff autonomy in their role, the opportunity to innovate and improved office environments also helped Good managers are key motivators who can make a real difference to their teams. The five fundamentals of good management: coaching, giving feedback, listening, rewarding and recognising success and performance management. Something as simple as hearing you've done a really good job on .... can strongly boost to an employees confidence, deliver a sense of pride and satisfaction and encourage them to put more into their work. Part-time workers are more motivated (76%) at work than full-time workers (68%), despite being paid less pro rata (10,793 a year, less than half of the average salary for a full time employee at 22,328). They are more likely to have a higher level of respect for their manager (57%) than full time colleagues (52%) and a more positive attitude towards their employer (57%) than full time staff (49%). Women were significantly more motivated than men.For women, enjoying their job is the most important motivator (64% chose it as one of their top three), followed by how well I get on with people (44%) and base salary (41%), while men chose base salary and benefits (58%) as the most important factor, then enjoying their job (53%) and how well they get on with colleagues (41%). Those under 30 are more financially motivated than their older colleagues, and are more likely to currently be in a job where they receive financial incentives for work. Some 55% of under 30s indicated that money was either very or pretty important to them, compared to 43% of over 30s. 12% of under 30s said that money is the root of all happiness compared to 9% of over 30s. Two thirds (61%) of employees said their workplace had an appraisal system, but a quarter of respondents (25%) think that appraisals are performed poorly by their manager. Appraisals are less effective at driving the performance and motivation among female employees.
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Sensory pleasures
Many people confuse happiness with sensual or sensory pleasures: those obtained from alcohol, food, sex, drugs, money and sun drenched beaches! Sensual pleasures are highly enjoyable whilst they last but tend to be short lived. They are a quick hit. They produce a temporary, ephemeral lift: instant but transient and superficial gratification. The high doesn't last and eventually becomes unfulfilling: rather like eating chocolate but nothing else: wonderful at first, but ultimately unsustainable. It has also been called "Hollywood happiness". A study by researchers at McGill University[14] found that dopamine (a neurotransmitter in the brain responsible for good moods) is released when you listen to music you enjoy. Even when you have listened to it many times, it can still arouse feelings of euphoria and craving.
The Hedonic Treadmill Problem

Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. The problem with sensual pleasures is something called the Hedonic treadmill[15]. The high you get via sensual pleasures is produced by dopamine; a brain neurotransmitter associated with addiction: the pleasure you get is rapid but unfortunately doesn't last long - you need more and bigger hits to achieve same effect: more alcohol, drugs or whatever. It's called this because it's similar to a treadmill where you have to keep running just to stay in the same place. If you experience a constant sound, smell or image it eventually disappears from your awareness. We quickly become familiar with new sources of pleasure and so the pleasure lessens: enjoyment quickly fades as we get same experience every day.
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This leads to a vicious circle of desire with a negative comedown afterwards: the bigger stomach you get or the increased bills can lead to you despising yourself. You therefore need to increase the dose or move to a new source. Advertisers have a vested interest in keeping the treadmill in place. Our consumer society constantly encourages us to spend leading to increased materialism. We keep comparing ourselves with others to reinforce our identity. A new study by researchers at McGill University[16] found that dopamine is also released when you listen to music you enjoy. Even when you have listened to it many times, it can still arouse feelings of euphoria and craving! The hole of wanting can never be filled, except momentarily, by the objects of its wanting. As soon as an aspiration or object is gained, I learn quickly to discount its importance and another replaces it. David Brandon
How to break the treadmill
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1. You've already made the first step: just understanding the treadmill and how it works is an important start. 2. Try to avoid sources of temptation: turn off the adverts on TV for example, or watch them analytically to see how they work on you. 3. Try to separate what you want (desire) from what you really need (essentials). You may find that well over half of the things you buy are in the first group! Also see the BBC article Shopping: The new tactics to get you spending[17] Those three things - autonomy, complexity and a connection between effort and reward are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether our work fulfills us. Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers
What motivates us at work?

Happy people tend to be successful at work, but surprisingly it's not your success that causes you to be happy, conversely it's your being happy which tends to cause your success.
Research has identified the following factors which make us happy at work:
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Autonomy
Autonomy means having some control over your work: managing your own time[18] and making decisions[19] on what you do when. Employees who have control over the tasks they have to do have greater job satisfaction and lead more fulfilling lives. People really dislike being told what to do! Self employed people[20] are happier about their work-life balance even though they work the longest hours - because they have more control over their time. They take responsibility for their own future, and take control of their own destiny. People working for smaller organisations also tend to be happier. Studies have suggested that autonomy is twenty times better at predicting happiness than income. People with high income but little autonomy are usually much less happy than people with a low income but control over what they do, so if you can find ways of controlling your life, you can be happy even on a low income. Autonomy is also related to health: the Whitehall Study[21] study found that Civil Servants at lower grades had much poorer health than those at higher grades who had more control over their work.
Mastery
Mastery means being able to use and improve the skills that you enjoy using: see our Strengths page[22] for more about this. People find it gratifying to exercise control. Our brains want to control the experiences we are about to have. Being effective - changing things, influencing things, making things happen - is one of the fundamental needs; with which human brains seem to be naturally endowed. Our desire for control is so powerful and the feeling of being in control so rewarding that people often act as though they can control the uncontrollable. The feeling of control . is one of the wellsprings of mental health. Professor Daniel Gilbert[23] This is related to being involved in "Flow" activities (see below) where we feel completely immersed in the activity.
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Purpose
Purpose involves making a difference, understanding that what you do has value and having goals that you believe in (see below).
Other factors which contribute to happiness and motivation

Having a variety of tasks to do. Getting positive feedback on your performance. Having challenges which stretch you (but not to the point where you get highly stressed!). Being able to work on a product or service from start to finish e.g. a builder who builds a house. Having friends at work[24]. Working in an environment that allows you to focus on your work without being distracted. Living close to where you work. The longer your commute to work, the less happy you are likely to be, and people who are able to walk or cycle to work are likely to be even happier: the exercise they get will have an impact but also the lack of stress of sitting in traffic jams or waiting for a late train. In short, they are in control of their journey to work.
Purpose: pursuing a cause that contributes to the greater good.

Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread" Studs Terkel "Alfredo Moser is a modern-day Thomas Edison, whose invention is lighting up the world. In 2002, the Brazilian mechanic had his own light-bulb moment and came up with way of illuminating his house during the day without electricity - using nothing more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach. In the last two years his idea has spread throughout the world. It is expected to be in one million homes by early next year." See www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23536914[25] for the full story. A study by Bruce Headey ( University of Melbourne)[26] found that people who placed a higher priority on altruistic behaviours and family goals had a long-term increase
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in life satisfaction. Those who prioritised career and material success, however, experienced a lasting decline. People with partners who scored highly on tests for neuroticism were more likely to be and to stay unhappy as long as the relationship lasted. People who attended church regularly were on average happier than people who were not religious. Women reported being significantly less happy if obese whereas being overweight had no effect on men's happiness! Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way. John Stuart Mill We want to feel that we matter and that we make a difference, that we are contributing to something worthwhile and doing what is "right". There is a direct brain-based link between helping others and happiness. Finding meaning in what you do gives long term inner satisfaction. When we think what we do matters we feel that we are being productive and useful. Jobs which give you a strong sense of purpose include teacher, doctor, nurse, fire officer, careers adviser, priest and nature reserve warden. Having a job or activity which embodies your values[27] is important. There is a saying that : you do a job for the money you do a career - for the status, but you do a calling or vocation (e.g. the priesthood) because you care: you would do it even if you weren't paid. A key element of a calling is the belief that your work makes the world a better place. People who pursue goals late in life (e.g. by continuing to work) tend to live longer than those who opt for a life of leisure. Data from 11,000 US workers[28] showed that the strongest predictor of meaningfulness
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at work was the belief that the job had a positive impact on others. Doing something for those less well of than yourself is also an excellent cure for self pity. "By making someone else happy you secure your own happiness".
This could involve:

Improving yourself: getting fit, losing weight or improving your mind by studying. Helping others: supporting your family and friends. It's not what you take out of relationships that counts, it's what you put in. People who try to help friends, family and community tend to live longer. Improving the world: this could be a social or an environmental[29] goal such as voluntary work at a nature reserve: fundraising for a charity[30] or helping the homeless or starving people in a developing country[31], See our voluntary work page[32] for lots of ideas on how to get involved.
Flow activities
Flow is the state reached when we are so immersed in an activity that we cease to notice the passage of time and have deep, effortless involvement. Time seems to stop. Our happiness is greatest at such times. Sports people call this "being in the zone" and mystics as being in an ecstatic state. It is the full involvement in flow, rather than happiness achieved from sensory pleasures that makes for excellence in life. It produces deep, long lasting satisfaction, rather than temporary cheerfulness.
Activities where we use and improve our skills produce flow

Enjoying doing something you are good at: you feel you are doing exactly what you most enjoy doing and don't want it to finish. Identifying your strengths[33] and skills[34] and then using and improving these in your work, relationships and leisure interests gives a deep and lasting source of satisfaction. It makes you forget all your worries, and gives you a great sense of control and the satisfaction of a job well done. there may be a rapid learning curve. it involve concentration.
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It involves a challenge: it will stretch our mind or body.
Activities where we set and achieve goals produce flow
This involves becoming immersed in trying to reach a challenging goal. See our action planning[35] page for tips on setting and achieving goals.
The secret is to have goals that are

clear and require appropriate responses broken down into clearly defined steps. compatible with what we want you get feedback on your performance: for example in a game you know immediately whether you've won or lost or being thanked for what you have done. which require effort and stretch us, so they keep us engaged and allow us to improve our skills: joining a new club, starting a hobby, sport or career. problems need to be solved[36] but not so difficult that we give up in despair: you have a good chance of success. If the challenge exceeds our skill level, we simply become more anxious. effort and discipline are required: you may need to learn how to persist when things get tough. skill is required: you may need to develop your skills to be successful. Choose
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activities that fit your personality, values, abilities. Think of what you already enjoy doing and do something similar. you feel a sense of control The learning involved means that your brain is fed with constantly changing positive experiences that prevent the hedonic treadmill from turning. Life satisfaction is greatest for those involved in short term goals which are enjoyable, not too difficult; and done in cooperation with others. Focus on one objective at a time and always have the next goal in mind. To accomplish more difficult tasks, break them down into components.[37] The most satisfaction comes from pursuing an objective, not simply from achieving it. - Ari Kiev
Zig Ziglar quotes

Money won't make you happy: but everybody wants to find out for themselves. Unless you have a definite, precise, clearly set goals, you are not going to realize your maximum potential. You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
Its almost easier to come second because then you still have something to aim for. When you win, you suddenly feel lost. You buy a shiny car, only to glimpse its superficiality. You win a promotion, only to find the job was not all you dreamed of. Even Olympic winners fall victim to an echoing sense of anticlimax: they have nothing more to aim for. Evolution makes us feel miserable after triumph, so we can disengage and focus on the next challenge. If goal fulfillment induced indefinite periods of contentment, we would be robbed of all future motivation. Taken from "Bounce", by Michael Syed[38] Surprisingly flow is more likely to occur at work than in your free time. A job that ticks the following boxes is usually called a Career! . The work has clear goals and rules of performance. You get feedback on your performance: increased sales or feedback from customers or your manager. A good work environment should encourage concentration and minimise distractions
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The difficulty of the work should match your skills (unless you've been over or under-promoted!). Research at Massachusetts Hospital [39] found that an 8 week course of half an hour a day in mindfulness meditation[40] led to structural changes in the brain. Mindfulness meditation focuses on non-judgmental awareness of sensations & feelings. Brain scans were taken of 16 participants before & after the training. Increases in density in the hippocampus (responsible for learning and memory) were found & decreased density in the amygdala (responsible for anxiety & stress responses), showing that the way we feel (calm or anxious) can be correlated with real structural indicators in the brain. Meditating doesn't just give a sense of peace & relaxation, but appears to give benefits in mental & emotional well-being, memory, sense of self, empathy & reduced stress that persist long term. Regular meditators have reduced levels of negative emotion, increased well being and contentment and improved immune responses. reductions in reactivity, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Mindfulness-based treatments appear to provide antidepressant and antianxiety effects, as well as decreases in psychological distress. Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, & not bothering. Winnie the Pooh! There is more to life than increasing its speed. Gandhi Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Natalie Goldberg Flow is often experienced in games such as chess or football because they have goals and rules that make it possible for the player to act without questioning what should be done, and how. For the duration of the game the player lives in a selfhttps://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/career-satisfaction.htm 20/26
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contained universe where everything is black and white. Flow is rarely experienced in passive leisure activities, such as watching television or relaxing. Reading books leads to a lot of flow experiences whereas watching television rarely produces flow. Flow activities need an initial investment of effort before they start to become enjoyable. If you are tired, anxious, or lack the self discipline to overcome that hurdle, you may go for relaxation rather than flow activities. You need some time to do nothing; relax on a sunny beach reading a novel, or just watching TV but it should be in proportion. Holidays can help to clear your mind & to look at your situation from a new perspective. Getting rid of all the unused junk in your home to produce a tidy, uncluttered environment, can also help. Relationships can of course also have a profound effect on your happiness but this is dependent on the whims of your partner. Flow happiness is of our own making. Flow can also be achieved via prayer or meditation - being in the moment. Flow can even be achieved when doing routine tasks: doing the washing up or peeling potatoes, if we approach these tasks with a state of mindfulness (total absorption in the task to do it as well as we possibly can). See the Zen saying "Chop wood, carry water! [41]" (see box on right.) Lower blood pressure which is related to your state of relaxation is also correlated with happiness. Average blood pressure is lower in Ireland, Holland, Denmark and Sweden than in Germany and Portugal and people have been found to be happier in the first group of countries than the latter. Blanchflower and Oswald, Journal of Health Economics[42] Flow is not always positive. Gambling can put you into a flow state, and if not controlled it can have addictive tendencies: for example, a workaholic may neglect other aspects of their lives such as their families For more on flow see the research done by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi[43]
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Flow usually occurs when you are doing your favorite things
playing team games or sports games such as chess, tennis, or poker or computer games playing a musical instrument or listening to music painting, pottery, writing poetry, music or a computer program collecting coins or stamps
making clothes growing plants inventing something religious
Research in the US found that teenagers experienced flow in

sports & games 44% of time spent hobbies 34% watching television 13%
ritual Yet these teenagers spent four times climbing a more of their free time watching TV mountain than involved in hobbies or sports. watching Similar ratios are true for adults. a sunset cooking a nice meal driving down a country lane feeding birds or fish talking to friends reading a good book
What can you do if you can't change your job?

Sometimes you can't change your job, especially in the short term and with fewer jobs available due to the economy, so how do you make it more meaningful? Sometimes our jobs have an impact on others, but were too distant from the customers or end users to see this. For example when university telephone callers responsible for getting donations from alumni[44] spent 10 minutes talking to just one beneficiary of their work they increased their weekly revenue by over 400%. When we see the direct consequences of our jobs for other people, we find more meaning in our work.
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An exercise called job crafting can help to reenergise your work. It involves redefining your job to incorporate your motives, strengths, and passions. You to visualize the job, map its elements, and reorganize them to better suit you. You can put personal touches on how you see and do your job, and youll gain a greater sense of control at work becoming happier and more effective. You can change the boundaries of your job by taking on more or fewer tasks, expanding or diminishing their scope, or changing how they are performed. A graduate in sales for example might take on additional event planning because he likes the challenge of organizing people and logistics. You can also change the nature or extent of your interactions with others, for example hospital cleaners who lacked patient contact provided emotional support to patients and their families[45] and how you think about the purpose of certain aspects of your job. For more about job crafting, see"Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want".[46] If you can't change your work in the above ways, another solution is to find meaning outside your work by volunteering[47] in evenings or weekends or taking an evening or online course[48]. I remember one drama graduate who wasn't talented enough to become an actress and eventually ended up in a rather boring job as an administrator for an airline, but she gained great satisfaction by becoming a leading light in her local amateur theatre company.
For further information see

Also see our pages on Coping with being unemployed/Maintaining your morale[49] and Striving for excellence[50] A King was going to his palace after his rounds in the city when he met a beggar. He asked the beggar, What would you like? The beggar laughed and said, You are asking me as though you can fulfill my desire! The king was offended. He said, Of course I can fulfil your desire. What is it? Just tell me. And the beggar said, Think twice before you promise anything.
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I will fulfill anything you ask. I am a powerful king, what can you possibly desire that I can not give to you? The beggar said, It is a very simple desire. You see this begging bowl? Can you fill it with something? The king said, Of course! He called his vizier and told him, Fill this man's begging bowl with money. The vizier went and got some money and poured it into the bowl, and it disappeared. And he poured more and more, and the moment he would pour it, it would disappear. And the begging bowl remained always empty. The whole palace gathered. By and by the rumour went throughout the city, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige of the king was at stake. He said to his vizier, If the whole kingdom is lost, I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar. Diamonds and pearls and emeralds, his treasuries were becoming empty. The begging bowl seemed to be bottomless. Everything that was put into it immediately disappeared, went out of existence. Finally it was the evening, and the people were standing there in utter silence. The king dropped at the feet of the beggar and admitted his defeat. He said, Just tell me one thing. You are victorious but before you leave, just fulfil my curiosity. What is the begging bowl made of? The beggar laughed and said, There is no secret. It is simply made of human desire.
1. http://www.tda.gov.uk/about/mediarelations/2006/20060727.aspx?keywords=boredom 2. http://issuu.com/glencrust/docs/graduate_wellbeing_initial_results__8c57ebe7c945bc/1 3. http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sme.htm 4. http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/selfemployment.htm 5. http://www.unisi.it/eventi/happiness/curriculum/nattavudh.pdf 6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613211 7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613211 8. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/12/08/1015962107.full.pdf+html 9. http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/forbes/P95294.asp 10. http://tiny.cc/pp5oy
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11. http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131104231507-17970806-most-popular-collegedegrees-earned-by-millionaires 12. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/184767769X/ref=sr_1_4? s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292324315&sr=1-4 13. https://www.i-l-m.com/Why-ILM/Research-reports/Beyond-the-bonus 14. http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.2726.html 15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill 16. http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.2726.html 17. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21537359 18. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/time.htm 19. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/decisionmaking.htm 20. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/selfemployment.htm 21. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/whitehallII/pdf/Whitehallbooklet_1_.pdf 22. http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/interviews/strength-based-interviews.htm 23. http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/ 24. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/teamwork.htm 25. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23536914 26. http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/77545/dp753.pdf 27. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/values.htm 28. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl/92/5/1332/ 29. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Environment.htm 30. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/charity.htm 31. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/developing.htm 32. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/voluntaryWork.htm 33. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/personalstyles.htm 34. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsmap.htm 35. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsactionplanning.htm 36. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/decisionmaking.htm 37. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsactionplanning.htm 38. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bounce-How-Champions-are-Made/dp/000735052X
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39. http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~lazar/ 40. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1093/clipsy.bpg016/full 41. http://www.interluderetreat.com/meditate/chop.htm 42. http://imechanica.org/files/andrew_oswald_presentation_071129.pdf 43. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199707/finding-flow 44. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597806000641 45. http://amr.aom.org/content/26/2/179.short 46. http://hbr.org/2010/06/managing-yourself-turn-the-job-you-have-into-the-job-you-want/ar/1 47. https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/voluntaryWork.htm 48. http://www.hotcourses.com/ 49. http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/copingWithRejection.htm 50. http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/excellence.htm
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What makes us happy at work?

Boredom and Happiness at Work

The Happiest Professions

Boredom Rating for Graduates (out of 10):

7.1 6.9 6.9 6.6 6.6 6.3

Hospitality/Travel Healthcare Teaching

5.3 5.1 4.0

computing staff bankers

This survey was commissioned by a teaching agency!

Some of the least happy professions were apparently:

page[4] for more about this.

Other factors reducing happiness at work include:

How important is money? The Easterlin Paradox

The Hedonic Treadmill Problem

How to break the treadmill

What motivates us at work?

Other factors which contribute to happiness and motivation

Purpose: pursuing a cause that contributes to the greater good.

This could involve:

Activities where we use and improve our skills produce flow

It involves a challenge: it will stretch our mind or body.

Activities where we set and achieve goals produce flow

The secret is to have goals that are

Zig Ziglar quotes

making clothes growing plants inventing something religious

Research in the US found that teenagers experienced flow in

What can you do if you can't change your job?

For further information see

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