How important is job satisfaction to you?

[ronandannette]

I agree with what you are saying. However, there is a difference between not hating your job, but not liking it and being miserable. I am not advocating for misery, either. If someone is truly miserable I would hope they would work to try to find something that suits them better.

For lack of a better term, my job is fine. I am respected and I respect the company and they people. However to say I am fulfilled or living the dream would be overstating it.

I also agree about not being miserable everyday for retirement that may never come. Our jobs (while maybe not our dream jobs) allow us to pretty much do and have what we want. Sure, I wish I could take more time off, but who doesn't.

ETA: I just want to state I personally am not miserable, nor did I say I was. Wishing my job were less stressful is not being miserable.

This is very well put!

Fair enough. But to be honest, I don't feel like I'm wishing for high pay. I'd be just fine with the $33K that is a typical entry-level salary in my field. I'm struggling specifically with the idea of making <$11/hr in a time and place when retail and food service are paying that much or more.

But you get that arbitrarily suppressing what other jobs pay won’t solve your problem, right? It seems to me that the American expectation of absolutely everybody having to achieve levels of higher education has diluted the value of a degree, in terms of career advancement or earning power. It’s extremely likely many of the retail and food service workers you refer to have degrees. And the ridiculous cost of your post-secondary educations just escerbates the tension.

 

[klacey1]

Workplace satisfaction is probably a smidge more important to me than actual job task satisfaction. I’ve had jobs where I liked the actual work and was well compensated but the environment was so toxic I only lasted a short time. For the most part, I’ve been blessed with well-paying jobs (with an English degree no less) that I at least mildly enjoyed. And currently I’m blessed with great coworkers/boss, interesting work, great pay, and zero commute. I’m very pleased.

 

[GreatLakes]

I personally don't know anyone who would stay at a job they hated no matter how bad they need money. Would you

I didn't take this post to mean you'd just quit and not have any income. I took it to mean you'd be looking to move to something different and quickly. I 100% agree with that. I'd be making calls to colleagues and getting out of a job I hated quickly. You spend too much of you life at work to hate it.

Something else not mentioned a lot here is that if you are at a place with a not so great environment work towards changing that environment. I came into my current position and replaced a person that had lost all credibility with his peers and let his department turn into a disaster. Moral was low, other departments had come to expect this department to hinder their job as opposed to help it, and job definitions were not clearly defined. I had to correct a lot of issues and one of the most pressing was the culture and environment. I didn't complain about it or cut bait, I turned it around and was rewarded with a C-level promotion.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Workplace satisfaction is probably a smidge more important to me than actual job task satisfaction. I’ve had jobs where I liked the actual work and was well compensated but the environment was so toxic I only lasted a short time. For the most part, I’ve been blessed with well-paying jobs (with an English degree no less) that I at least mildly enjoyed. And currently I’m blessed with great coworkers/boss, interesting work, great pay, and zero commute. I’m very pleased.

I think this is a great point. It doesn’t matter how much you love what you do if you hate everyone who shares your day. And a job you dislike can be made much better with the right environment.

 

[morgan98]

I think this is a great point. It doesn’t matter how much you love what you do if you hate everyone who shares your day. And a job you dislike can be made much better with the right environment.

I agree with this too. I left a similar role at a previous employer (although at this firm it had more upside and that has in fact come through) because I was somewhat disappointed in some decisions related to integrity that were made and also just how cut throat and different the place was becoming. Now, I am at a place where things are thought through and leadership practices what it preaches. The current environment lends itself to more of the type of place where I can see myself for quite some time.

 

[prprincess]

It's extremely important to me, and affects my well-being immensely. Back in 2008, I left a well-paying government contracting job and took a huge pay cut to work at a non-profit that I absolutely loved working at. While things were tight, I had never been happier--loved my tasks/work, loved the org, and loved my coworkers. It felt like a career/lifestyle, and not a job.

Unfortunately, they relocated to a different state and I chose not to follow, but since then I have yet to find a job that I am as happy with. So while I am making a decent amount at my current job, I am honestly extremely unhappy here for various reasons, and would be willing to take a pay cut for the right position/company.