money or job satisfaction essay

Choosing a High Income Career

The most important consideration when choosing any career or job is having a high income. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Making a choice regarding profession or job is one of the toughest aspects in our lives. Therefore, majority of the people consider high financial income to be the top priority in selecting any job or career. I personally believe that job satisfaction and career growth are crucial factors while opting for a job or selecting a career. To begin with, job satisfaction is given the top most priority amongst any other factor while pursuing any job. Job satisfaction includes vacations, health benefits, work-life-balance and many more parameters. Moreover, many individual’s feelings of job satisfaction come from their professional achievements, the skills they learn, and the position they reach, rather than the money they earn. For instance, a recent article was published in The Times Of India stating that people tend to work at a place longer where they are satisfied with the services provided to them rather than salary. On the other hand there is career growth also which helps in choosing a place to work. However, while opting for a career there are a plethora of elements that are taken into consideration. People choose a profession to help the society or either to help others. For example, musicians and artists are known for choosing a career path which does not always provide them high amount of financial help to support their families. To conclude, the remuneration should definitely be the first thing to consider when choosing a job because it is impossible to lead a comfortable life without a decent salary. However, money alone cannot make people happy and hence other factors like job satisfaction and working hours too should be considered before taking up a job.

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Job Satisfaction vs. a Big Paycheck

By Phyllis Korkki

• Sept. 11, 2010

DOES earning a higher salary make you happier?

It’s an issue that tugs at many of us: the tradeoff between a satisfying job and a satisfying paycheck. Students have to ponder the question when considering a college major or embarking on a career. Workers are concerned about it when weighing a promotion that would bring longer hours and more stress along with higher pay.

In many ways, achieving the right balance depends on one’s values, priorities, family obligations and spending habits. But according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, there is something of a magic number when it comes to income and happiness .

Beyond household income of $75,000 a year, money “does nothing for happiness, enjoyment, sadness or stress,” the study concluded.

It’s not so much that money buys you happiness but that lack of money buys you misery, said Daniel Kahneman, a professor emeritus of psychology at Princeton and one of the authors of the study. “The lack of money,” he said, “no longer hurts you after $75,000.”

Where you live and the cost of living there has only a small influence on that number, he added. (That may be a revelation to some Manhattanites.)

The study, which analyzed Gallup data of 450,000 randomly selected Americans, did find that one’s “life evaluation” — a self-assessment of one’s life — continued rising well above $75,000. But this is not the same as experiencing day-to-day happiness.

“Many people want to make a lot of money, but the benefits of having a high income are ambiguous,” said Professor Kahneman, who is also a Nobel laureate in economics. When you are wealthy you are able to buy more pleasures, he said, but a recent study suggests that wealthier people “seem to be less able to savor the small things in life.”

That said, some people seem almost hardwired to want to make money. A 2007 article in The Journal of Happiness Studies reported that college freshmen who stated that they wanted a high salary by and large achieved that goal 20 years later. The article said that “individuals with strong financial aspirations are socially inclined, confident, ambitious, politically conservative, traditional, conventional, and relatively less able academically, but not psychologically distressed.”

People who sought high incomes were more likely to major in things like business, engineering and economics, it said, while people for whom high income was not paramount gravitated toward the liberal arts and social sciences.

“Wanting money is not a recipe for disaster, but wanting money and not getting it — that’s a good recipe for disaster,” Professor Kahneman said. People who want to become performing artists are likely to be unhappy, because most will fail, he said. Becoming a wealthy rock star is a common dream when you are young, but when you are in college, you should try to take a longer-term view, he said.

These days, of course, many people are worried about whether they will get a job at all, let alone become rock stars. Understandably, the recession is causing more people to place the financial rewards of a career first, said Nicholas Lore, founder of the Rockport Institute, a career coaching firm, and author of “The Pathfinder.”

But this could backfire as people who initially pursue a field because of the salary realize that the work is unsatisfying. Mr. Lore has recently coached a lawyer who decided to forgo his high pay in favor of teaching law, an investment banker who decided to switch to a green energy company and a dentist who decided to become a schoolteacher.

It all depends on priorities, Mr. Lore said. Some people are willing to make lifestyle changes because the intrinsic rewards of following a passion or making a difference are more important than a high salary in an unenjoyable career, he said.

In the end, people should pursue what they’re interested in, said Daniel H. Pink, author of “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Looking at lists of careers with the highest salaries tends to be a fool’s game, he said.

“It’s very hard to game the system, in the sense that situations and conditions change so quickly that a field that is hot today might be only lukewarm in 5 or 10 years,” he said. “It might even be nonexistent.”

Let’s say you see that accountants are getting decent salaries directly out of college, he said, but you don’t really like accounting. “Chances are you’re not going to be very good at accounting,” and your salary will reflect that, he said. “Generally, people flourish when they’re doing something they like and what they’re good at.”

For his part, Mr. Lore said he was concerned that current economic woes might force people into poor career choices.

“I would prefer that the economy was doing better and people were more adventurous because it often has an enormous effect on the quality of their life,” he said. Many people equate success with a high income, but, “How can someone say they’re successful if they’re not happy doing their work? To me, that’s not success.”

E-mail: [email protected].

What Is Job Satisfaction and Why Is It Important?

Are you aware of what right  actually means?

Determining whether you are satisfied with your job, whether it is right for you, and why that is important often involves personal intuition and circumstances. For some people, the right job might entail earning a certain salary. For others, the right job might involve having a supportive team.

With more than 21,000 participants in their study, researchers Dobrow, Ganzach, and Liu (2018) found that over a 40-year span, people who stayed in the same organization over time became less satisfied, and people who moved to different organizations over time became happier.

What does this mean? Does job satisfaction come from staying in an organization or leaving it? If someone were to stay in an organization, what would retain their satisfaction?

In this article, we will explore just that and more, including divulging the ingredients of job satisfaction, real-life examples of it, and how it relates to motivation.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients identify opportunities for professional growth and create a more meaningful career.

This Article Contains:

What is job satisfaction, 10 proven ingredients for job satisfaction, is job satisfaction important 4 benefits, 2 real-life examples, a note on job satisfaction and motivation, positivepsychology.com’s job satisfaction tools, a take-home message.

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

You have probably heard that quote before, yet it may still have relevance today. It makes us ask whether emotions like happiness, stress, and anxiety play an important role in job satisfaction.

The aptly titled Job Satisfaction (Hoppock, 1935) defines job satisfaction as any combination of psychological, physiological, and environmental circumstances that cause a person to truthfully say that they are satisfied with a job.

Going a little deeper and fast-forwarding to this century, job satisfaction has been called a set of favorable or unfavorable feelings and emotions with which employees view their work (Karatepe, Uludag, Menevis, Hadzimehmedagic, & Baddar, 2006).

Before we get to favorable feelings or proven ingredients for job satisfaction, let’s first assess what leads to those unfavorable feelings.

The graphic above from the University of Southern California’s Applied Psychology Program shows some factors that make American employees unhappy or burnt out with jobs.

Many of us have experienced unhappiness because of these factors and more at some point in our careers. Let’s take a look at what can be done to satisfy ourselves in a job.

Although it is subjective, job satisfaction research (Kumari, 2011) has showcased the following:

1. Communication

Communication can be extremely important to retaining levels of satisfaction, on both a personal and professional level. It is exhibited in allowing employees to be open, collaborative, trustworthy, and even confrontational when needed.

Defining a company culture links to job satisfaction as it provides values and guidance about topics ranging from organizational goals to appropriate levels of interaction between employees.

3. Security

It’s no surprise that once a culture is established in a workplace, satisfaction can then be enhanced by added feelings of security. Security may arise from knowing you work for a viable company with long-term goals, insinuating feelings of belonging to that company (Berg, Grant, & Johnson, 2010). This can be enhanced by having honest communication and transparency within a company.

4. Leadership

Tied into increased motivation for employees, leadership, or influencing a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2006), can lead to job satisfaction by making sure communication and instruction of tasks is adequate and easily understood.

In turn, when employees feel that leaders can guide them through tasks, their motivation and satisfaction increases.

With leadership having a crucial influence on job satisfaction, this related article with leadership activities  is a recommended read.

5. Opportunities

Employees can gain more satisfaction with their job when more challenging opportunities arise. This can lead to participation in interesting and diverse projects and get employees away from the monotony of a role.

6. Career development

Employees can become more satisfied with their job when they know there is an individualized plan for them. Beyond the formal nature of appraisals, if there is a path in place for growth, this can encourage employees to stay happier for longer.

7. Working conditions

Job satisfaction can be increased if a resilient workplace is a cooperative environment. This means a place with respect for diverse ideas and opinions, honest and constructive feedback, mentoring opportunities, and freedom from harassment.

8. Employee personality

Most ingredients linked to job satisfaction may have roots in elements outside of the employees’ control (such as leadership from managers and communication from company leaders), but what about the employees themselves? Can they control their own levels of satisfaction? Bakker, Tims, and Derks (2012) talk about just that.

These researchers discuss how job satisfaction can be determined by how proactive the employee is at work. Does the employee proactively seek out a manager for feedback? Does the employee go the extra mile to achieve tasks within a company? Does the employee try to stick to company goals, lead meetings, and ask questions when unsure about how to complete a task?

If yes, these employees are ones who can show more satisfaction in the workplace. Proactiveness in the workplace can lead to positive job appraisals, which when fed back to the employee, can lead to satisfaction.

For more on constructive feedback, read our article discussing ways to give negative feedback  constructively.

9. Pay and benefits

Organizational success and job satisfaction are also linked to employees’ perceptions of adequate pay and benefits (Edwards, 2008).

While pay and benefits are not the only reason employees find satisfaction in their workplaces, research going back more than 30 years (e.g., Gerhart, 1987) shows that pay and benefits, at least according to how employees view themselves in their roles, has ranked high on lists of job satisfaction factors.

10. Rewards and recognition

Beyond monetary gain and being paid fairly for the work they do, job satisfaction for employees means that promotional policies are unambiguous and in line with their expectations.

A key finding here (Kumari, 2011) is that satisfaction at a job is not exclusively linked to pay, but to the perceived fairness of how one is recognized at work for achievements.

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Help others redesign their work. This manual and the accompanying client workbook outline a seven-session coaching trajectory for you, the practitioner, to expertly guide others through their own unique job crafting journey.

We have already discussed what employees look for in achieving and maintaining job satisfaction. But why is it important? And why should organizations care?

First, it is a primary responsibility of organizations to ascertain that employees are satisfied with their jobs through measurements, but also to find out the causes of dissatisfaction when employees are not feeling satisfied (McBride, 2002).

Tools such as the following help measure some important factors that go into employees’ job satisfaction (Spector, 1997, chapter 2):

• Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985)
• Job Description Index (Castanheira, 2014)
• The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, and England, 1967)

As to why job satisfaction is so important, the Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report from the Society for Human Resource Management (Lee et al., 2016) notes four benefits of making sure employees are satisfied with their work.

1. Increased profits

This is one any manager and employee might appreciate. Keeping employees satisfied can lead to higher sales, lower costs, and a stronger bottom line.

2. Higher productivity

Irrespective of their job titles or salary, employees who are more satisfied with their job, whether they feel satisfied with the organizational culture, with the rewards they are getting, or with recognition, can produce more and do it more efficiently.

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3. Lower turnover

If employees are more satisfied with their job, they are less likely to leave. It also helps to recruit better quality talent as new talent sees employee staying power as added value.

When employees feel there is a growth path for them, they are more satisfied. In turn, because they feel the organization has their best interests at heart, they tend to support the organization’s mission and objectives. When this happens, employees may tell their friends or relatives about the good nature of the organization, which helps spread organizational goodwill.

The Job Satisfaction Wheel can help assess your current job satisfaction and identify improvement areas. Job satisfaction measures subjective wellbeing at work (Judge & Klinger, 2008).

According to Roelen et al. (2008), there are seven key indicators of job satisfaction:

• Task variety
• Working conditions
• Education and development opportunities
• Person-environment fit

Here’s how you can use the Job Satisfaction Wheel:

• Rate the seven job satisfaction domains on a scale from one – “not at all satisfied” to ten – “completely satisfied”. Place a circle around each score on the wheel.
• Connect your scores by drawing a line and forming an inner wheel. This gives you an overview of how satisfied you are with your current job.
• Looking at the wheel, where do you see areas for improvement? What would it take to improve the score? Which action steps can you take?

Honesty and communication about a company’s objectives and goals can be vital and are linked to job satisfaction for employees. But do employees only care about company success? How does honest communication impact their own, individual success?

The importance of honesty and communication

Agarwal and Mehta (2014) were interested in employee job satisfaction within the IT industry.

Their curiosity stemmed from the idea that IT employees may largely be working in isolation, away from other employees, and the researchers wondered if employees valued appraisals more in such circumstances than in other industries. They discussed how performance appraisal was directly linked to satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) for the employee.

Additionally, they also discuss how honest and consistent communication and regular updates of employee progress (bi-annual rather than yearly appraisals) can not only increase employee satisfaction at work, but also help companies by decreasing the rate of attrition. Interestingly enough, Agarwal and Mehta (2014) did not discuss company goals or performance in their findings.

Let’s take a look at some familiar companies you may have heard of.

Although the phrase “the customer is always right” may be common, it does not seem to ring all true behind the scenes (or the counter, in this case).

The CEO’s mantra was that if managers look out for employees, employees will look after customers. To do this, he offered health insurance to all employees despite the excessive cost and being advised against it.

Is it surprising that good leadership strengths, recognition, and reward given to employees increased job satisfaction and in turn increased profits for Starbucks? It certainly fits in line with the aforementioned research in this article.

While also producing satisfied end-users like us when using Google’s products, Google puts a lot of work into job satisfaction for its employees as well.

It’s interesting to note that Google does not care (perhaps as much) about employee titles, but more about what type of leaders its employees are, or emergent leadership. This draws us back to the importance of positive leadership in job satisfaction.

Gillett (2016) writes that Google attracts talent with competitive pay and keeps employees satisfied by allowing telecommuting. This may show an appreciation for work–life balance and retention.

Gillett also writes that according to compensation and data company PayScale, nearly three-quarters of Google employees find their jobs meaningful, citing that Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

She describes Google employees thinking that their goal of working at Google is a moral rather than a business goal, which in turn creates motivation to innovate and push into new areas.

These sound like great organizational goals that drive profits. Furthermore, Google staff certainly demonstrate that job satisfaction can indeed lead to employees supporting the organization’s goals and objectives.

According to Latham (2012), motivation is a cognitive resource allocation process in which a person makes choices as to the time and energy to be allocated to an array of motives or tasks. The key word here seems to be choice .

When an employee is able to make a choice, they feel more motivated to perform a task. When an employee is more motivated to perform and complete a task, this tends to be linked with higher job satisfaction (Jalagat, 2016).

Choice, as directed or allowed by organizational policy, can lead to further motivation and, in turn, job satisfaction as well as performance. This seems to be echoed by the work of Ilies and Judge (2003).

Ilies and Judge (2003) discuss how leaders interact with employees, specifically by talking to them more as a person, and how assigning tasks and providing a career path can affect their motivation level.

When determining job satisfaction, it is key to remember that human factors such as motivation, excitement, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction must be considered. This is clearly indicated by the Starbucks example.

When employees are encouraged to be great leaders and to engage in challenging opportunities, such as at Google, they can end up feeling more satisfied with their job.

As one of the key ingredients of job satisfaction, communication among employees, managers, and staff cannot be underestimated.

However, communication is not automatically generated or achieved right away. When introducing new employees into a workplace, it may be even more important to establish good and fun communication procedures between employees.

This helpful article with work-related communication games and exercises can help improve communication at the workplace.

For other ways to establish happiness in the workplace , this article offers a guide and tips for making employees happier.

To determine your own job satisfaction, you need to do an assessment of your strengths and skills. This tool guides you to complete a Strengths In Challenging Times worksheet in order to do exactly that.

Another invaluable tool based on the Japanese concept of ikigai is Job Crafting of Ikigai . It is an interesting exercise that helps you understand what fuels your passions and, in turn, change aspects of your role to make it more fulfilling.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others manage stress without spending hours on research and session prep, this collection contains 17 validated stress management tools for practitioners . Use them to help others identify signs of burnout and create more balance in their lives.

Job satisfaction can be a two-way street. Employees need to feel satisfied, and organizations must help employees realize their potential.

If you are interested in increasing the job satisfaction of your employees, be sure to look beyond the seemingly practical benefits of providing adequate salaries and health insurance, although those too are critical.

Motivating employees may be just as important. Job satisfaction links to motivation, which employees can gain even more of when realizing their full potential. Besides providing adequate salaries and health insurance, much more can be done by companies to motivate and guide employees. In turn, companies will reap the benefits of loyalty and shared objectives.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Work & Career Coaching Exercises for free .

• Agarwal, R. N., & Mehta, A. (2014). Impact of performance appraisal and working environment on the job satisfaction and attrition problem in the Indian IT industry. Paradigm , 18 (1), 73–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971890714540367
• Bakker, A. B., Tims, M., & Derks, D. (2012). Proactive personality and job performance: The role of job crafting and work engagement. Human Relations , 65 (10), 1359–1378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712453471
• Berg, J. M., Grant, A. M., & Johnson, V. (2010). When callings are calling: Crafting work and leisure in pursuit of unanswered occupational callings. Organizational Science , 21 (5), 973–994. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1090.0497
• Castanheira, F. (2014). Job Descriptive Index. In A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_1565-2
• Edwards, J. R. (2008). To prosper, organizational psychology should overcome methodological barriers to progress. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 29 (4), 469–491. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.529
• Gerhart, B. (1987). How important are dispositional factors as determinants of job satisfaction? Implications for job design and other personnel programs. Journal of Applied Psychology , 72 (3), 366–373.
• Gillett, R. (2016, April 28). 5 reasons Google is the best place to work in America and no other company can touch it. Business Insider. Retrieved  October 25, 2020, from: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-the-best-company-to-work-for-in-america-2016-4?r=US&IR=T
• Hoppock, R. (1935). Job satisfaction . Harper and Brothers.
• Ilies, R., & Judge, T. A. (2003). On the heritability of job satisfaction: the mediating role of personality. Journal of Applied Psychology , 88 (4), 750–59.
• Jalagat, R., Jr., (2016). Job performance, job satisfaction, and motivation: A critical review of their relationship. International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics , 5 (6), 36–43.
• Judge, T. A., Heller, D., & Klinger, R. (2008). The dispositional sources of job satisfaction: A comparative test. Applied Psychology, 57(3) , 361-372. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00318.x
• Karatepe, O. M., Uludag, O., & Menevis, I., Hadzimehmedagic, L., & Baddar, L. (2006). The effects of selected individual characteristics on frontline performance and job satisfaction. Journal of Tourism Management , 27( 4), 547–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2005.02.009
• Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2006). Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills & best practices . McGraw Hill. https://www.amazon.com/dp/007128558X/
• Kumari, N. (2011). Job satisfaction of the employees at the workplace. European Journal of Business and Management , 3 (4), 11–30.
• Latham, G. P. (2012). Work motivation – History, theory, research and practice . SAGE Publications. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1412990939/
• Lee, C., Alonso, A., Esen, E., Coombs, J., Mulvey, T., Victor, J., & Wessels, K. (2016). Employee job satisfaction and engagement: Revitalizing a changing workforce . Report prepared by the Society for Human Resource Management.
• McBride, E. L. (2002). Employee satisfaction: Code red in the workplace? Journal of Nursing Management , 10 (3), 157–163.
• Dobrow, S. R., Ganzach, Y., & Liu, Y. (2018). Time and job satisfaction: A longitudinal study of the differential roles of age and tenure. Journal of Management , 44 (7), 2558–2579. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315624962
• Roelen, C. A. M., Koopmans, P. C., & Groothoff, J. W. (2008). Which work factors determine job satisfaction?. Work, 30(4), 433-439.
• Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the Job Satisfaction Survey. American Journal of Community Psychology , 13 (6), 693–713.
• Spector, P. E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences . SAGE Publications, Inc. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761989234/
• Weiss, D. J., Dawis, R. V., & England, G. W. (1967). Manual for the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. Minnesota Studies in Vocational Rehabilitation , 22 , 120. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1968-08111-001

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More than job satisfaction

Psychologists are discovering what makes work meaningful — and how to create value in any job.

By Kirsten Weir

December 2013, Vol 44, No. 11

Print version: page 39

12 min read

• Mental Health
• Healthy Workplaces

What do you do? That's often one of the first questions people ask when they meet someone new — not surprising given that most adults spend most of their waking hours at work and that our jobs can influence our lives even outside the workplace. Our work can be a big part of our identity and offer insights into what is important to us, making it a rich area of psychological study.

Several recent studies have concentrated on a particular aspect of work: finding meaning in it. Through their research, experts have gleaned new insights, showing that meaningful work is good for the worker and for the company — and that even employees in tiresome jobs can find ways to make their duties more meaningful.

"Work can make people miserable. Losing work can make people pretty unhappy, too," says Michael F. Steger, PhD, an associate professor of counseling psychology and applied social psychology at Colorado State University. "So are there ways to use work to improve lives?"

Building cathedrals

In a 2010 review, Brent D. Rosso, PhD, and colleagues noted that finding meaning in one's work has been shown to increase motivation, engagement, empowerment, career development, job satisfaction, individual performance and personal fulfillment, and to decrease absenteeism and stress ( Research in Organizational Behavior , 2010).

Unfortunately, meaningful work may not be the norm. According to State of the American Workplace, a new report by Gallup Inc., only 30 percent of the U.S. workforce is engaged in their work — in other words, they're passionate about their work and feel strongly committed to their companies. The remaining 70 percent of American workers are either "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work ( Gallup , 2013). Gallup defines unengaged workers as those who are "checked out," putting in time but without much energy or passion. Actively disengaged workers, meanwhile, act out on their unhappiness, taking up more of their managers' time and undermining what their co-workers accomplish.

That disengagement takes a toll. Actively disengaged workers, the report states, are more likely to steal from their organizations, negatively influence co-workers, miss workdays and drive customers away. According to Gallup, active disengagement costs U.S. companies $450 billion to $550 billion per year.

Of course, there are different ways to find meaning in one's work, says Michael G. Pratt, PhD, a professor of management and organization at Boston College. To illustrate this, he points to the old tale of three bricklayers hard at work. When asked what they're doing, the first bricklayer responds, "I'm putting one brick on top of another." The second replies, "I'm making six pence an hour." And the third says, "I'm building a cathedral — a house of God."

"All of them have created meaning out of what they've done, but the last person could say what he's done is meaningful," Pratt says. "Meaningfulness is about the why, not just about what."

Something that's meaningful for one person may be inconsequential for another, however. What makes work worthwhile to you probably depends on your culture, your socioeconomic status and how you were taught to see the world, according to Pratt. An academic might find value in scholarship, for instance. "But a firefighter might look at an academic and ask, ‘Are you helping people on a daily basis? If not, it's not worthwhile work at all.'"

People assign significance to their work in a variety of ways, as Pratt and doctoral students Douglas Lepisto and Camille Pradies describe in a chapter in the 2013 book " Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace ." Some may derive meaning not from the job itself, but from the fact that it allows them to provide for their families and pursue non-work activities that they enjoy. Others may find meaning in being able to advance themselves and be the best they can be. People with a craftsmanship orientation take pride in performing the job well. Those with a service orientation find purpose in the ideology or belief system behind their work. Still others extract meaning from the sense of kinship they experience with co-workers.

Craftsmanship, service and kinship orientations are especially likely to be meaningful, as they all point to something beyond the individual, says Pratt.

Steger, too, has zeroed in on the idea that meaningful work is bigger than one's self. He and his colleagues recently created a tool for measuring meaningful work ( Journal of Career Assessment , 2012). This "Work and Meaning Inventory" assesses three components, he says: The feeling that the work has some purpose, evidence that the meaning derived from work feeds into the meaning one feels in life as a whole, and the idea that the work somehow benefits a greater good.

As one might imagine, meaningful work and job satisfaction are linked, says Steger. In his 2012 paper, he found that having meaningful work predicts job satisfaction. But meaningful work was actually better than job satisfaction at predicting absenteeism – people who found their work more meaningful were less likely to miss work than people who merely reported being satisfied with their jobs. Meaningful work was also correlated with life satisfaction and less depression.

A higher calling

Researchers have found that workers who feel a higher calling to their jobs are among the most content. Take zookeepers, for example. Though more than eight in 10 zookeepers have college degrees, their average annual income is less than $25,000. The typical job description involves scrubbing enclosures, scooping waste and spending time in the elements. There's little room for advancement and zookeepers tend not to be held in high regard, says Stuart Bunderson, PhD, a professor of organizational behavior at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis ( Administrative Science Quarterly, 2009).

Nonetheless, zookeepers are a passionate bunch. Many volunteer for months or even years until a paid position opens up, Bunderson says. He and Jeffery Thompson, PhD, at Brigham Young University, began studying zookeepers while investigating ideological motivations for work. Initially, they suspected the zoo's conservation mission probably motivated the keepers. While that was partly true, they found, it turned out their inspiration went deeper.

"There was this idea that they were born to do this work," Bunderson says. "Working as a zookeeper felt like a personal destiny to many of them. They even shared stories about how events led them to the zoo, as if by fate."

What Bunderson and Thompson zeroed in on among the zookeepers was a sense of calling. "You can say work is meaningful because you enjoy it or it serves some purpose," Bunderson says, "but a calling makes that work personal."

People who feel called to their careers are likely to find their work deeply meaningful, he says. Their personal connection with the job makes even the most trivial tasks feel significant. Often the experience of a calling comes with social benefits as well. People who felt called to be zookeepers tended to feel that their co-workers experienced the same motivation and sense of duty. "It's not just that you do the same work, but you're the same kind of people," Bunderson explains. "It gives you a connection to a community."

Having a sense of calling can affect not only what you do but where you do it. Pratt and colleagues found that among physicians, those who said medicine was their calling felt more attached to the hospital or health-care facility in which they worked ( Journal of Vocational Behavior , 2011). He suspects that's because, for physicians, hospitals are instrumental in helping them reach their goals. "It's hard to be a freelance physician," he says.

Yet having a calling is "a double-edged sword," Bunderson says. If you feel you were born to do something, it's awfully hard to walk away from it. "You put up with sacrifices and difficulties. You're more vulnerable to exploitation, since managers who know you're deeply committed know they can treat you in ways that are less than respectful," he says. "Deep meaning doesn't come cheap."

Calling may be more prevalent in some fields than in others. In not-yet published work, Bunderson studied business school graduates dating back 30 years. He found those in nonprofit and health-care settings were more likely to experience a sense of calling than management professionals in other sectors. In similar unpublished work, he found that public administrators and government employees are more likely to feel called to their work than are their counterparts in the private sector.

Does that mean certain jobs are inherently more meaningful than others? Not necessarily, Steger says, though work that benefits others does seem most likely to be considered meaningful. People also seem to find more value in their work when they're using — and being appreciated for — their unique talents, he says. "Being able to use your strengths to really shine and make an impact seems to be a huge part" of meaningful work, he says.

Interestingly, one element that may not be terribly important to meaningfulness is salary. The 2013 Gallup report found that employees with college degrees are less likely than those with less education to report being engaged in their work — even though a college degree leads to higher lifetime earnings, on average.

That makes sense to Pratt. "My grandfather was a glazier, and he found his work quite meaningful. When I asked my grandfather, ‘What did you do today?' he could tell me exactly what he built," he says. In his own university job, Pratt says he might spend a workday writing a few pages and sitting in meetings. At the end of the day, there's nothing concrete to show for his efforts.

"If we're not doing anything tangible, if we don't know what the standards are for good work versus bad work, then it's difficult for people to try to figure out why their work is meaningful," he says.

Make your own meaning

Fortunately, you don't have to become a glazier or a zookeeper to find meaning at work, says Jane E. Dutton, PhD, a professor of business administration and psychology at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Rather, you can redefine your job in personally meaningful ways, through a process she and her colleagues describe as "job crafting" ( Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace , 2013).

"Meaning doesn't take money," she says. "At any rank, people can make different meanings of their work, and also of themselves at work."

Employees can shape their work experiences in three broad ways, Dutton says. The first is by altering the tasks they perform. Every job has elements that make it feel like, well, work. But most employees do have some leeway to tweak their duties. "You can be an architect of the tasks," Dutton says.

Employees might choose to spend more energy on existing tasks they find particularly gratifying, for example. A professor might find she's most fulfilled when interacting with students. She may decide to limit the time she contributes to university committees so that she has more time to work with students. In some cases, adding fulfilling tasks can benefit you even if it increases your overall workload.

Second, Dutton says, employees can change relationships in the workplace. "We never make meaning in a vacuum. Work is very social," she says. Spending time with toxic co-workers can drain meaning from the most gratifying jobs. But just a few moments spent collaborating with a valued colleague can be reinvigorating. "Even if you talk to someone for five minutes, if it's someone you have a high-quality connection with, it's like taking a vitamin," she says.

Finally, a person can use cognitive restructuring to reframe the way he or she thinks about work. Steger mentions an accountant who worked at a community college. She found her work very meaningful not because she kept the accounts balanced, but because she felt her work allowed others to advance themselves through education. "For all these things in our jobs that we just don't like, we can take a step back and link it to the things that really matter," he says.

The zookeepers also illustrate the power of framing your job to see the big picture. They are able to find meaning in cleaning cages because they believe such tasks are vital to the bigger mission — not only caring for individual animals, but in fact helping to preserve entire species. "The more you look for the benefits of what you're doing, the more it feeds you psychologically," Dutton says.

Job crafting can pay off for employees and employers. As Steger has shown, finding one's work meaningful is associated with life satisfaction and overall well-being. Organizations, too, benefit from workers who are invested in their jobs. The Gallup report found that engaged workers are most likely to build new products and services, attract new customers and drive innovation.

However, Dutton notes, there is a potential drawback to emphasizing how employees can create their own meaning at work. "People could argue that this contributes to how organizations can extract labor from people," she says. In other words: "I'll give you a crappy job and it's up to you to make something good out of it," she adds.

Despite that risk, however, Dutton and her colleagues see plenty of value in helping people find ways to make the most of what they have. After all, workers may not have the power to change their organizations, but they can change the way they frame their own duties.

Dutton is particularly interested in helping people in low-status jobs. Surprisingly, she's found that such workers may actually be in a better position to craft their jobs than are people at higher ranks ( Journal of Organizational Behavior , 2010).

She found people with less power and autonomy in their organizations actually saw more opportunities to influence and build trust with other people. For instance, one customer-service representative who Dutton interviewed asserted herself with her supervisor and asked to join a website committee — a role that added tasks to her formal job description but allowed her to do something she was passionate about. By contrast, high-status employees were reluctant to impose on others, and were therefore less likely to involve other people in crafting their jobs.

Having witnessed too many workers constrained by Michigan's depressed economy, Dutton says she's seen firsthand how small changes can make a big difference for individuals, especially those at lower ranks.

"These are people who were happy to have a job, but the work stunk. I could see the power of helping them have hope," she says. "It shouldn't change the push for organizations to be fairer and better. But at the same time, I want more self-empowerment for workers to craft their work in ways that will make it less depleting and more enriching."

Kirsten Weir is a writer in Minneapolis.

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IELTS Essay on Employment

Posted by David S. Wills | Aug 6, 2020 | Model Essays | 0

There are many IELTS writing topics but one of the common ones is employment . This means anything relating to the idea of working. (Of course, it could also be the opposite: unemployment .) In any case, today I will explain how to write an IELTS essay on employment.

We are going to look at two examples of IELTS writing task 2 questions about employment and then I will show you my two sample answers.

IELTS Writing Questions about Employment

The topic of employment could arise almost anywhere in the IELTS exam but it is quite common in task 2 of the writing test. In fact, the scope for what sort of question you could be asked is immense! You could be asked about employment and:

• Environment
• and much more

In short, you cannot really prepare for this by guessing the questions or having any expectation of a particular topic. Just know that you might have to write an essay about employment and that you will need to read it carefully.

IELTS Essay #1: Self-Employment vs Traditional Employment

First of all, let’s look at an IELTS writing question about self-employment.

Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organization. Why might this be the case? What could be the disadvantages of being self-employed?

This is a two-part question , which means you should aim to answer both questions in the body of your essay. In a sense, this makes it much easier to understand the question and structure your answer.

However, let’s make sure that we understand it perfectly.

Question analysis

Premise: In the modern era, many people work for themselves. This is different from the past, when they worked for companies.

We have to write about two things:

• Why this has happened.
• What are the disadvantages.

In a sense, this is a rare instance where the two-part question and the advantages-and-disadvantages question come together! You can see how #1 is sort of asking for the advantages, and #2 specifically asks for disadvantages.

How interesting!

Common Problems

I have often seen my writing correction students make the mistake of confusing freelancing, self-employment, and working from home. There can obviously be some overlap between these but there are also important distinctions:

To answer this question, I would take a pretty simple, four-paragraph structure for my approach. It would look like this:

Sample Band 9 Answer

It is quite common nowadays for people to be self-employed, rather than working for a company or organization. This essay will look into the reasons for that change, and then discuss some of the disadvantages of being self-employed.

In the information era, it is quite possible for people to work at home on their computer. The internet has opened up all sorts of possibilities in terms of making money, and so people may work as freelancers or start their own company. It has never been easier to do this because in the past working for yourself required renting an office or shop, whereas now you can simply set up a website or social media profile. People typically prefer this because it allows them a great deal of freedom. A person who prefers nights and loathes waking up early might choose to conduct their business at night, whereas someone who likes to travel might work from a laptop while visiting different places.

Of course, there are some disadvantages to being unemployed. This sort of employment lacks the security of a traditional job. In most countries, workers are protected by laws that guarantee them certain rights. However, with no employer and no workplace, these laws do not apply. Similarly, traditional jobs provide pension plans and health insurance, but when you work for yourself you have to provide these yourself, and they are not cheap. In fact, most self-employed people simply forego these things and take the risk as a part of their comparatively free life.

In conclusion, being self-employed allows people a far greater degree of freedom in their life, but there are several significant drawbacks that mean this sort of work is not suitable for everyone.

Note: This essay originally appeared here .

IELTS Essay #2: Job Satisfaction

Next, we will look at an IELTS essay on employment that deals specifically with the interesting issue of job satisfaction:

As most people spend a major part of their adult life at work, job satisfaction is an important element of individual wellbeing. What factors contribute to job satisfaction? How realistic is the expectation of job satisfaction for all workers?

This is another two-part question. What a coincidence!

Question Analysis

In order to understand this question, we can again look closely at its premise:

Premise: Job satisfaction is important for a person’s wellbeing.

You have to write about:

• The factors that make people satisfied with their work
• Whether or not it is realistic for everyone to achieve job satisfaction

You should aim to write about all of this without straying off topic.

A lot of people seem to misunderstand or overlook the second question, which asks whether it is realistic for everyone to have job satisfaction . This can be a difficult thing to discuss with any depth, but you need to address it as best you can.

Here is how I will plan my IELTS essay about job satisfaction:

Although some people think that a high salary is the most important part of a job, the truth is that job satisfaction is probably more important. This essay will look at some of the factors contributing to this, and then argue that it is a reasonable expectation to have some degree of job satisfaction.

Every person is different and so defining job satisfaction is not an easy task. However, it could be stated that in order to provide this to employees, employers must give them a good justification for doing their job. The reason for this is that having a sense of satisfaction with one’s job largely comes from feeling a sense of purpose. People who feel that their efforts are useless or unappreciated invariably feel no job satisfaction. In addition to this, it is important that a person is given some degree of responsibility and autonomy with their tasks. Having a supervisor monitoring every single action presents a lack of trust and creates an atmosphere of oppression. When these two factors are met, they can result in workers who feel satisfied with their positions.

It may seem unlikely that people can achieve this because ever since the industrial revolution, it has been normal for people to work long hours in order to make money to survive, with little thought given to making workers happy or comfortable. However, in the modern world there is no good reason why this cannot be a new target. Employers should strive to give their employees dignity in the workplace, instead of maximizing productivity. Whether this is likely or not depends on social expectations and workplace laws, but it is certainly possible if the effort were made.

In conclusion, job satisfaction occurs when people are given tasks that matter and then offered some degree of responsibility. This could be given to everyone with the right motivation, although it is also possible that it may not happen.

Ok folks, I hope that was helpful for you. Now you can go and write your own IELTS essay on employment. Remember that there are many possible questions and so you should not assume that these two will appear in your next test. Also note that the topic of employment could appear in task 1 as a line graph of employment rates or any other sort of visual representation of employment and unemployment.

About The Author

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' and the founder/editor of Beatdom literary journal. He lives and works in rural Cambodia and loves to travel. He has worked as an IELTS tutor since 2010, has completed both TEFL and CELTA courses, and has a certificate from Cambridge for Teaching Writing. David has worked in many different countries, and for several years designed a writing course for the University of Worcester. In 2018, he wrote the popular IELTS handbook, Grammar for IELTS Writing and he has since written two other books about IELTS. His other IELTS website is called IELTS Teaching.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Job — Job Satisfaction is More Important

Job Satisfaction is More Important

• Categories: Job Job Satisfaction Workers

About this sample

Words: 346 |

Published: Apr 11, 2019

Words: 346 | Page: 1 | 2 min read

Works Cited:

• Adler, F. (1975). Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal. McGraw-Hill.
• Eronen, M., Hakala, J., & Lindberg, N. (2020). Social background and crime type: A study on homicide offenders in Finland. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention , 21(2), 225-240.
• Hickey, E. W. (2013). Serial murderers and their victims (6th ed.). Wadsworth.
• Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., ... & Sears, M. R. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 2693-2698.
• Odgers, C. L., Moffitt, T. E., Broadbent, J. M., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., ... & Sears, M. R. (2008). Female and male antisocial trajectories: From childhood origins to adult outcomes. Development and Psychopathology, 20(2), 673-716.
• Ressler, R. K., Burgess, A. W., & Douglas, J. E. (1988). Sexual homicide: Patterns and motives. Lexington Books.
• Roberts, A. R. (Ed.). (2001). Juvenile justice and delinquency. Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Scarpitti, F. R. (2019). Born Criminals? Assessing the Theories of Cesare Lombroso. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences, 14(1), 29-41.
• Sellbom, M., Wygant, D. B., & Sleep, C. E. (2014). Differentiation between antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and psychopathy: Conceptual and empirical considerations. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 5(4), 440-449.
• Webster, C. D., Douglas, K. S., Eaves, D., & Hart, S. D. (1997). HCR-20: Assessing risk for violence (version 2). Simon Fraser University.

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Ielts exam preparation for a higher band score., ielts essay: when choosing a job, the salary is the most important consideration.

IELTS Essay Topic:

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

When choosing a job, the salary is the most important consideration for many. Others, however, prefer different other aspects of a job over the salary they earn.

In your opinion what are the most important aspects of a job?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer:

Many people consider the salary to be the most important aspect of a job as it is the only reason they choose to work in the first place. It is only after a couple of years that they come to realise that apart from the remuneration, many other factors contribute to one’s job satisfaction. This essay will shed some light on what other factors need to be considered while choosing a job.

Choosing a particular job or profession solely for the money may seem satisfying only temporarily, however, it may not eventually benefit the employee. They need to feel passionate about the job they do and only passion can drive them to carry on and do something excellent. Without enthusiasm in a profession, an employee will soon become exhausted in his professional life and that would impact his personal life as well. To cite an example, work-life balance is a bare minimum among the employees who do not feel connected with their job, according to a survey conducted by the University of Sussex a few years ago.

There is a saying that humans are never satisfied with what they have or how much they achieve. I consider this notion as the driving force which has enabled the human race to have come this far in the world. The same applies to the corporate world and if an employee feels that his work is being positive to change other’s life, or to advance the human civilisation, he will always work dedicatedly. Money can’t buy this dedication even it can temporarily attract some employees to work.

In conclusion, choosing a profession or a job based on salary, and not based on one’s passion and interest could have a disillusioning effect in the long run. Passion and motivation can bring professional success more profoundly than money can.

[Written by – John | Email: [email protected]]

2 thoughts on “ IELTS Essay: When choosing a job, the salary is the most important consideration ”

Such a helpful website for me. I will take the IELTS Exam soon and this website is the single source of information and preparation aid that I need!

I would like to point out that the choice of a job by the young generation is always considering by the salary in spite of their inexperience about the responsibilities they will have after being accepted to a company.

Having a dream job that allows them to make a big amount of money to have luxurious and affordable life gears the youngers to get an upsetting job. In addition, I would like to mention that choosing a job, is the time when parents have a notable influence on teen’s choice, and it sometimes drives them to commit a mistake about their future of earning and working.

To conclude, without commitment and enjoyment there is no potential to become a succeeded employ. Money is not all.

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Answer the 'Advantages and Disadvantages' topic

IELTS advantages and disadvantages questions normally give you a statement and ask you to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of that statement.

Answer structure for the type of essay

• Introduction
• Body paragraph 1 – advantages
• Body paragraph 2 – disadvantages

Examples to start your body paragraph:

• The main advantage is...
• The disadvantage of this...
• The main benefit...
• Despite these advantages...
• One possible drawback...

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