Happiness at Work / Making a difference in the job we already have

The manic pursuit of happiness has left many people upset — worried they will never enjoy work unless they choose “the perfect career.” Some of us also believe we will feel trapped in a job where we aren’t “doing what we love.” But it’s not that simple — or desperate. In his New York Times bestseller, Great Work, David Sturt asserts that most of the fulfillment we experience comes not from finding that one-in-a-million position, but in making a difference in the job we already have.

For me, David’s comment about “making a difference” is the key to most employee engagement issues on the planet. No matter where you live or who you are, people need to feel they are adding value to something bigger than themselves. If they don’t, a lack of self-worth will quickly lead to depression and disengagement.

In Dan Ariely’s Ted Talk, “What makes us feel good about our work?,” he describes several experiments where people were paid to do a simple task with decreasing amounts of compensation. The groups were divided into three categories: those that had their work acknowledged; those that had their work ignored; and those that had their work destroyed after completion. In all the experiments, work that was ignored and destroyed were held in basically the same regard.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Do You Have to Change Jobs to Find Happiness? | Louis Efron.