Time To Upgrade Your Career?
If you are looking at ways to upgrade your life, then sooner rather than later what you do for a job or career will come up. If you have reflected on your career path and felt disappointed, then you are not alone.
It’s not uncommon to feel stuck in a job where the career progression that doesn’t feel right for you. Perhaps you’re not using your strengths, or maybe you’re just not passionate about the work you’re doing. Sometimes the people, place or timing just aren’t right.
There are a number of entrepreneurs on podcasts encouraging people to start side hustles. Others are proclaiming that we should ditch our nine-to-five and become digital nomads whilst travelling the world.
But does finding a career you love really need to be that drastic? Do you have to overhaul your entire life? Is having job satisfaction in the day-to-day enough? Is it the actual answer?
We help people unlock success by removing resistance
What is Job Satisfaction Anyway?
Most people think that a decent boss, a short commute, and adequate pay is all it takes to keep you happy in your job. But there are many more factors which affect job satisfaction, including:
- Compensation and benefits: whether you are fairly rewarded for the work you do, and if will you be covered in an emergency can bring peace of mind.
- Job security: it can be extremely stressful if you know you can’t count on your job being available six months down the line.
- Working conditions: knowing that your organisation has your health and wellness in mind lends a feeling of security and allows you to focus on your work .
- Opportunities for growth and advancement: when your organisation allows you to outgrow your current role through training and experience, there is endless potential for job satisfaction in your career.
- Work-life balance: ask yourself if your job allows you enough down time to actually live. If you find yourself too burnt out to do anything outside of work hours, this needs addressing.
- Relationships with colleagues and supervisors: according to Forbes, bosses and co-workers are a huge source of workplace stress for most people. You don’t have to like everyone you work with, but it helps if there is at least a mutual respect shared between you and your colleagues.
- Job autonomy and control: we all work differently. Two people may achieve the same level of efficiency by using completely different work methods, and if your organisation embraces that and allows you to work in a way that suits you, you will be much happier in your role.
- Organisational culture: consider whether your workplace aligns with your personal values. It’ll be almost impossible to achieve job satisfaction when you fundamentally disagree with the policies in your workplace.
Of course, the above are all external factors. In other words, they only consider what a job or career can offer you, and do not consider how you individual make up may impact your satisfaction.
It may not be possible to find a job that ticks all of the boxes for you right now, and it can be impractical to quit a job that doesn’t provide all of these things. But if you understand yourself as an individual, you can start to identify areas of your life that need to shift and the awareness will allow you to recognize opportunities as they arise.
How Important is Job Satisfaction?
It’s undeniable that job satisfaction plays a major role in the average person’s happiness.
Coming home at the end of a workday with enough energy to do things you enjoy because you’re not suffering from burnout is important.
Knowing that you’ve spent your day doing tasks you find meaningful, for someone who respects and appreciates your efforts and pays you adequately for your work.
Feeling that you have options and a clear path to advancement and self-betterment through training.
Job satisfaction is not just important for individuals. It has a flow impact on the business too.
According to research undertaken in 2017 by The University of Oxford and Saïd Business School, there is a conclusive link between happiness and productivity, with workers being 13% more productive when they’re happy and satisfied in their workplace.
Companies want an increase in profits, staff retention and loyalty, and a generally positive atmosphere in the office are starting to understand that it is in a company’s best interest to keep their workers happy.
The concept of Ikigai and how BG5 Can help you find it
Your Career Design can reveal how you are designed to navigate the world. It can be the key you use to unlock success by removing resistance.
Using the tools and framework within the BG5 System enable us to work in a way that brings us the most satisfaction in our jobs.
Ikigai is the Japanese concept of personal fulfilment, the Japanese term for a state of “life worth” of purpose in life. It occurs when you are doing the things you love, the things you are good at, the things you are paid for, and providing things the world needs.
Job satisfaction is a crucial element to happiness in life. If you feel as though you’re in a career slump, that you’re under appreciated or under utilized in the workspace, or that you’re ready to change your role but you don’t know how, your BG5Guide can help you. If you don’t know what the true indicators are, it’s hard to find your way to your destination!