The article below called “The 10 happiest jobs” really brings to light our society’s dichotomy between personal fulfillment and work. By isolating specific jobs that can create happiest, engagement or fulfilment and those that can not, the author is creating a sense of hopelessness in the workforce. It’s time to start creating possibility! I have seen and assisted in bringing fulfillment and happiness to people in a variety of jobs, even the most mundane. Who could imagine that a person who paints walls for a living could love what he does? A painter I met told me how he loved his work because he sees it as creating a new environment for people to enjoy – the creation of beauty for his clients. This brings great fulfillment to him.
By understanding how your personal values connect to your work, new perspectives and attitudes can be generated. This can and does bring higher levels of engagement and happiness from work.
Please read the article below and share your thoughts about it with us. Also have a look at the video called “Unlocking better job performance and happiness” to learn about studies being done that show small changes in perspective can bring higher levels of engagement.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/talking-management/video-unlocking-better-job-performance-and-happiness/article2164333/?from=2172331
Isn’t it time bring passionate into your workplace?
The 10 happiest jobs
Steve Denning
Forbes.com
Published Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2011 7:09AM EDT
In my article on the Ten Most Hated Jobs, there were some surprises. There are also some surprises in the 10 happiest jobs, as reported a General Social Survey by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago. (I am indebted to Lew Perelman in drawing my attention to the Christian Science Monitor article.)
1. Clergy: The least worldly are reported to be the happiest of all.
2. Firefighters: 80 per cent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs, which involve helping people.
3. Physical therapists: Social interaction and helping people apparently make this job one of the happiest.
4. Authors: For most authors, the pay is ridiculously low or non-existent, but the autonomy of writing down the contents of your own mind apparently leads to happiness.
5. Special education teachers: If you don’t care about money, a job as special education teacher might be a happy profession.
6. Teachers: Teachers in general report being happy with their jobs, despite the current issues with education funding and classroom conditions. The profession continues to attract young idealists, although 50 per cent of new teachers are gone within five years.
7. Artists: Sculptors and painters report high job satisfaction, despite the great difficulty in making a living from it.
8. Psychologists: Psychologists may or may not be able to solve other people’s problems, but it seems that they have managed to solve their own.
9. Financial services sales agents: 65 per cent of financial services sales agents are reported to be happy with their jobs. That could be because some of them are clearing more than $90,000 dollars a year on average for a 40-hour work week in a comfortable office environment.
10. Operating engineers: Playing with giant toys like bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, scrapers, motor graders, shovels, derricks, large pumps, and air compressors can be fun. With more jobs for operating engineers than qualified applicants, operating engineers report being happy.
It’s interesting to compare these jobs with the list of the 10 most hated jobs, which were generally much better paying and have higher social status. What’s striking about the list is that these relatively high-level people are imprisoned in hierarchical bureaucracies. They see little point in what they are doing. The organizations they work for don’t know where they are going, and as a result, neither do these people.
1. Director of Information Technology
2. Director of Sales and Marketing
3. Product Manager
4. Senior Web Developer
5. Technical Specialist
6. Electronics Technician
7. Law Clerk
8. Technical Support Analyst
9. CNC Machinist
10. Marketing Manager
The meaningfulness of lives
Why were these jobs with better pay and higher social status less likely to produce happiness? Todd May writing in the New York Times argues, “A meaningful life must, in some sense then, feel worthwhile. The person living the life must be engaged by it. A life of commitment to causes that are generally defined as worthy — like feeding and clothing the poor or ministering to the ill — but that do not move the person participating in them will lack meaningfulness in this sense. However, for a life to be meaningful, it must also be worthwhile. Engagement in a life of tiddlywinks does not rise to the level of a meaningful life, no matter how gripped one might be by the game.”
This is what underlies the difference between the happiest jobs and the most hated jobs. One set of jobs feels worthwhile, while in the other jobs, people can’t see the point. The problems in the most hated jobs can’t be solved by job redesign or clearer career paths. Instead the organizations must undertake fundamental change to manage themselves in a radically different way with a focus on delighting the customer through continuous innovation and all the consequent changes that are needed to accomplish that. The result of doing this in firms like Amazon, Apple and Salesforce.com is happy customers, soaring profits and workers who can see meaning in their work.
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