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The Problem Is You
By Brick | June 24, 2008
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I was doing a little reading on job satisfaction, and this caught my eye:
Misery spans all income levels, ages, and geography. A recent Gallup poll found that 77 percent of people hate their jobs.
Source: Management Consulting News.
Perhaps we expect this kind of figure, so we are not really surprised, but we should be: almost 8 out of every 10 people hate their job! Not dislike: hate! Conceivably, some of the remaining 2 may merely tolerate or be indifferent to their job without actually hating it. It would seem a very small percentage of people may love their job. I find this disturbing. How can this not cause a general sense of misery in our society? And how can that not cause further misery and negative feelings? Let’s face it, dealing with miserable people helps make us miserable too.
What are some basic conclusions we can draw from this? How about the following theories:
- Most Jobs Suck. Maybe it is simply a fact that most jobs are crap no matter what we do, and since someone has to do them, most people will end up hating these job no matter what. I’m not saying I believe this theory, but it’s a possibility!
- Job Placement Is Poorly Done. With this theory, we assume that most jobs are actually ok for a specific set of people. However, we have a huge set of type "A" people employed in type "B" jobs, while an equally huge set of type "B" people are employed in type "A" jobs. All we need to do is engineer a giant scheme to transfer certain jobs to the right kind of people and we will all live happily ever after. When you consider that a lot of people are forever upgrading their skills, retraining, and/or changing jobs, this theory does not really hold up.
- People Want To Hate Their Jobs. Perhaps the job itself is neither here nor there, maybe people actually want to hate their job.
Theory number 1 is somewhat cool because it leads to a need for acceptance if there is to be any chance of work related happiness. But that seems a little too Zen for me. I like theory number 3. By wanting to hate our jobs, we allow ourselves to be victimized by them, and this opens up a whole bunch of benefits (yes, you heard me - benefits!), such as:
- Not being responsible for what happens with our careers, and by extension, with our lives.
- Always being morally right about our career choices or lack thereof.
- Not having to be accountable. If you hate your job, then anything done poorly is a result of this distaste, not your abilities!
- Being forever entitled to sympathy.
- Being justified in feeling moral indignation for not being fulfilled at work.
(adapted from Psychology of Victimhood).
What do you think? Theory 1, 2 or 3? Perhaps you have another theory of your own. Do share!
Here’s a theory: you want to subscribe to the Life Sutra.
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Topics: Job Satisfaction |
July 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
This is certainly something to chew on. I guess I would be more likely to lean towards #2, but there are so many variables in the workplace that can influence your happiness there (staff, managers, workplace attitude, type of work, success of business at particular times…). I remember reading a while back how people nowadays expect more from their jobs, a consequence of living in a more affluent society, so maybe another theory is that companies aren’t responding especially well to that demand.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Heya Brick,
I have wondered about this a lot myself. And as someone who hates her job, I don’t disagree that there’s some of #1 and #3 involved. But I found out recently that a great deal of what I hate about my job is truly #2 - my strengths are not being utilized.
Read more, if you like: http://hilarycat.blogspot.com/2008/07/about-focusing-on-your-strengths-at.html