Gainful Employment

Definition:

1. Gainful employment refers to an employment situation where the employee receives

steady work and payment from the employer.
2. Gainful employment is a positive psychology concept that explores the benefits of work
and employment.

Nine characteristics of Gainful Employment:

1. Variety in duties performed:

a. If tasks performed at work are sufficiently varied, satisfactions come more easily.
b. Lack of variability in work makes an employee unproductive and unhappy.
c. When seeking a new job, it is advisable to take a position that offers great
variety at a lower pay instead of a higher-paying position that offers repetitive
activities.
2. Safe working environment:
a. Safe and healthy physical environment leads to employee happiness in sustained
high levels of productivity.
b. Keeping workers physically safe and injury free leads to better physical health.
3. Income for the family and self:
a. A minimum income is necessary to provide for the needs of one’s family and
oneself.
b. Money is overrated as a source of happiness and pursuit of money undermines
importance of family pleasures; such a situation should be avoided.
4. Deriving purpose in providing a product of service:
a. Work also is an important potential source of purpose in life.
b. Sense of providing needed products or services to customers act as source of
such purpose.
c. Workers, sometimes in small ways, want to feel that they are making a
contribution to other people and the society.
5. Happiness and satisfaction:
a. Work, happiness and satisfaction go hand in hand.
b. Happiness at work increases chances of overall higher satisfaction with life.
c. Employed people consistently report being happier than the ones without jobs.
6. Engagement and involvement:
a. Engagement is the employee’s involvement with work.
b. Engagement is said to occur when employees find their needs are being met.
c. It reflects those circumstances in which employees know
i. What is expected of them
ii. What they need to do
iii. Feel something significant
 iv. Have chances to improve and develop.
d. The most engaging jobs are ones:
i. With special duties
ii. Having good match between required activities, skills and personality of
employees.
7. Sense of performing well and meeting goals:
a. Clear goals lead to high performance
b. With clearly set goals employees can achieve:
i. Established standards
ii. Heightened personal pleasure
iii. Sense of accomplishment
8. Companionship and loyalty to coworkers and company:
a. Work offers people a chance to socialize
b. People share experiences of obstacles and triumphs in a work setting thereby
forming bonds with each other.
9. Respect and appreciation for diversity:
a. Proper use of ‘diversity management’ results in better group performance in the
workplace and higher levels of job satisfaction for all employees.

Importance of Having or Being a Good Boss:

1. The boss is a crucial resource in helping employees to have productive and satisfying job
experiences.
2. Authentic bosses:
a. Foster trust and positive emotions among employees
b. Ensure high engagement and motivation to reach shared goals.
c. Hold deep personal values and convictions that guide their behaviors
d. Are respected and trusted by employees
e. Encourage differing views and interacts collaboratively with workers.

3. Characteristics of Good Bosses:

a. They provide clear goals and job duties to employees.
b. They are not just best friends to employees but can deliver corrective feedback
so that it is heard.
c. They are genuine and authentic in their interactions with everyone.
d. They are ethical and demonstrate moral values in their interactions with people.
e. They are honest and model integrity.
f. They find employee talents and strengths and build on them.
g. They trust workers and facilitate their employees’ trust in them.
h. They encourage diverse views from diverse employees and for themselves.
i. They set high but reasonable standards for employees and for themselves.
j. They have personal awareness and strive toward cultural competency.
The Strengths-Based Approach to Work:

1. This approach aims at matching employee duties to their strengths and talents.
2. The focus on building on assets of workers and not on changing their weaknesses.
3. Match people, don’t fix them: This approach focuses on:
a. Finding out a worker’s talents that can be used
b. Or shaping job activities around the workers’ talents and skills.
4. Stages of the Strengths-Based approach:
a. Stage 1: identification of talents; natural or learned talents.
b. Stage 2: integration of the talents into the employee’s self-image
c. Stage 3: actual behavioral change; the individual learns to attribute any
successes to his or her special talents.