Job Satisfaction

[JTLP]

Evening all.

Just been pondering life recently - and to put it all into context before I continue - I shall explain my story.

Moved out of home at the start of this year to a new city for a new job; left behind best friends, girlfriend, family...the works. Pretty much at the mercy of this job. Which I now find I am not enjoying and it's really not turning out to be all that it was cracked up to be (despite its size in the world).

Do I slug out the remaining years of my contract? Or pull the pin, head home and be happier but reversing my career trend?

How important is job satisfaction to everybody? Do we all wake up every day; beaming and jumping out of bed to turn a dime...or is there the inevitable trade off...

Go.

 

[jersey10]

You'll never be any good at anything you don't love doing. I believe if your heart is not in it you need to get out. That said, you need to be sensible about how you 'get out'.

 

[Topgunint]

I think it is true when they say "Home is where the heart is", perhaps you never really wanted to come in the first place, considering what you had to leave behind.
That said, if you do go back, you may be sorry as there would have been a reason for coming in the first place, that you may only remember when you get back!
If I were you, I would make a decision to enjoy the job and learn as much as you can. All things start with a decision, make some good ones and stick to them.
You may not stay there til the end of your contract, because, if you decide to enjoy your work, even if you had to clean the dunnies, you will become good at it and then you will be able to make a better choice of where you go next.
Remember, "Make hay while the sun shines."
This may well be "the" opportunity of your life, give it a good go, before you toss in the towel.
Cheers.

 

[doctorj]

Moving to a new place is tough. If I were you, I would try to separate the impact of the job and the new surrounds. Is the job itself bad, or, would the job be more bearable if you were still back at home? If the latter, you need to be proactive in restoring balance.

It's very common for people in new places to work longer hours than they normally would because they haven't created social circles yet. I've seen it amongst some foreigners here - they work late because they don't want to return to go to an empty house and before long, they've settled in a routine that's hard to break.

My advice is to try to join the work sports teams, always say yes if work colleagues invite you out and consider doing an evening class once week (learn a language?) to use your time productively and give yourself a chance to meet people.

The 'good career move' probably suddenly hasn't become a bad one just because you're not enjoying it… try to introduce some balance and reconsider later...

 

[Sean K]

You'll never be any good at anything you don't love doing..

I agree with this generally, but who ever REALLY loves their job? Harvey, Murdoch, Packer, Grollo, Fox, Buffett, maybe. The majority are slaves.

It's all perception and expectation management in the end probably.

 

[Logique]

...Moved out of home at the start of this year to a new city for a new job; left behind best friends, girlfriend, family...the works. Pretty much at the mercy of this job. Which I now find I am not enjoying and it's really not turning out to be all that it was cracked up to be (despite its size in the world)....Do I slug out the remaining years of my contract? Or pull the pin, head home and be happier but reversing my career trend?

Been there my friend.

Don't give up without a fight. Join clubs, activities etc like Doctorj says. At least you'll have a clear conscience that you gave it a decent try. But failing this - your heart's gotta be in it, as Jersey10 said.

Cheers and sympathies,
Log

 

[DB008]

Over the past 5 years, working in WA, I've probably pulled the pin no less than 4 or 5 times, mainly over BS issues that snowball in major issues, that really could have been iron out in 2 minutes, but ego's get in the way.
Example - RIO/BHP managers that have no idea about the field that they are in and in charge of - "I work for BHP/RIO, do this and do that", my response, "Cy-a" - with a 1 fingered salute!!!).

However, the field l was in and at the time, the industry was booming, work was not very hard to come by. So l would not do this in "normal" Monday-Friday 9-5 work. If you can get another job lined up, pull the pin and see what is on the other side. There is very little loyalty these days.

That's my experience, and l'm sure that everyones varies.

 

[Julia]

JTLP, suppose for yourself that it could be possible to transport the job back to your original environment where you'd have the love and support of your family, friends, girlfriend.

How would the job seem then?

This seems to me perhaps a way of differentiating what is the main problem here, i.e. that the job is disappointing, or rather that your missing of all that's familiar is overriding your capacity to make the best of the job.

In my experience, every new job is tough for at least two years. I think most of us underestimate how important it is for our sense of job satisfaction to feel familiar with what we do, to develop friendships with workmates etc.

Moving to a new environment is a big step on its own. In addition, you have the challenge of a new job. On top of that, the loss of all that was familiar.

Hell, that's a lot to cope with. I'd be really surprised if you weren't feeling pretty much less than OK.

doctorj's advice is good. Divert your anxiety by getting involved in out of work activities, whatever provides you with physical exercise and fun.

Hope you won't give up too easily. I've done this in the past, and was never able to rid myself of the sense of being a quitter, of not giving a job a really fair go.

Best of luck.

 

[JTLP]

Hi All,

Thanks for some sound advice and understanding. It's a very complicated issue; and it's not easy to distinguish whether it's me missing home or not enjoying the job. I will definitely take up some of the ideas posted...thanks again and if you're interested i'll keep anybody posted!

It was meant to be a more general thread though

 

[So_Cynical]

It was meant to be a more general thread though

Job Satisfaction is something i know very little about and something "others" have always talked about, ive been reasonably happy most of the time i spent in 3 jobs (15 years out of 42) but perhaps that's got something to do with the fact that i have no profession :dunno: i work because i need money and the thought of other people actually enjoying work is just beyond my understanding.

JTLP your felling home sick and miss the things you got used to being around and that's understandable....ive travelled alot and lived in many different places in Aust, one thing ive noticed particularly in smaller country towns is that there's lots of people that are very happy with there life's, and there crappy jobs and good jobs because they live somewhere there happy to be.

 

[telefomin]

I was doing a search, came across this thread and consider it an important topic. Perhaps one worth refreshing for a moment?
In some economies any job is to be prized.
In Australia, if you are fortunate enough to have the right skills, it can be the quality of the company that is a key factor.
I was a teacher for many years and the greatest variable to my job satisfaction was the quality of the Principal. With some I felt stifled. With others invigorated and valued.
In private enterprise it may be the ability of the GM, MD or CEO to develop a positive culture that transfers to staff job satisfaction and, ultimately, the level of company success.
In a publicly listed company this may be even more the case.

 

[noco]

Is there a union for house husbands?

I do the shopping.....the cookimg.....the washing and the ironing...I vacuum the carpets and mop the floors...dust the furniture .......mow the grass and look after the garden and the pot plants.

I don't get paid.......I don't have a boss on my back because she is always satisfied with what I do.......and at the end of the day my job satisfaction is a hug and a kiss......What more could a man want?

 

[telefomin]

Is there a union for house husbands?

I do the shopping.....the cookimg.....the washing and the ironing...I vacuum the carpets and mop the floors...dust the furniture .......mow the grass and look after the garden and the pot plants.

I don't get paid.......I don't have a boss on my back because she is always satisfied with what I do.......and at the end of the day my job satisfaction is a hug and a kiss......What more could a man want?

Sounds like my son-in-law's job noco..... Although he doesn't do as much as you do. But, it works for their family too.
Good on you. And "she" is one lucky lady!

 

[Smurf1976]

I was a teacher for many years and the greatest variable to my job satisfaction was the quality of the Principal. With some I felt stifled. With others invigorated and valued.
In private enterprise it may be the ability of the GM, MD or CEO to develop a positive culture that transfers to staff job satisfaction and, ultimately, the level of company success.

Human resources 101 - people join companies. They leave bosses.

Regardless of how great the company or industry is, if you're working under a rotten boss then you'll end up looking for another job sooner or later. But a good boss can make even the most mundane work for a struggling company reasonably pleasant and retain staff.

I once worked in a place where the general manager said, and I quote "I don't place much value on goodwill". I was there when he said it, and I've never forgotten those words. Suffice to say it ended up costing them an outright fortune in countless ways.

Things turned nasty as they tend to when you have someone like that running the place, and pretty quickly I learned all about unions and how to join one as did everyone else. The place went from happy and productive to doom and gloom in a matter of weeks. Staff discussion about work turned into discussion about management whilst productivity, revenue and profit all fell in a heap in a big way.

In reality, it's hard to run a successful business without a reasonable degree of goodwill from all parties. It might work if the work is simple and staff are easily replaceable, but not when there's a high intellectual content in the work as was the case with this employer. Once everyone starts looking at their statement of duties and not doing anything they aren't paid to do, problems arise pretty quickly. And when you've got the senior management actually encouraging such a view well then you can't really blame the workers for thinking that way.

If staff turnover is excessive or the staff hate the place then 99% of the time it's due to a bad boss rather than the company or industry. There's nothing wrong with proper management, it's a necessary thing in any business, but there are good and bad ways to go about it.

 

[telefomin]

Well put Smurf. I wonder how many ASX listed companies suffer from having a CEO who does not have the capacity or attributes to build a cooperative culture where staff feel motivated as well as valued.

In such instances I'd hope the Board would recognise the damage being done and take all necessary corrective steps.

Investors need to know they are not putting their money into an enterprise with a toxic culture.

I might try to research this topic a little more.

 

[CanOz]

If any business is to survive against strong competition they'll need to create a culture of continuous improvement. That can only come by engaging 100% of the workforce in the business. Companies that are going down this path of the High Performance Organization will be rewarded with happier more engaged employees possessing an intimate knowledge of the vision and plans for the business. The employees will be rewarded with greater opportunity for advancement, the ability to acquire new skills, higher pay linked to performance of the goals that they develop and a better work/life balance as more and more of the workforce becomes fully engaged.

It is a genuine pleasure to lead people through this change and see them realize their dreams as well as the companies goals...This is great stuff and one of the things i am most passionate about outside of the markets.

 

[Muschu]

....
It is a genuine pleasure to lead people through this change and see them realize their dreams as well as the companies goals...This is great stuff and one of the things i am most passionate about outside of the markets.

Thanks CanOz. Love your approach.

But how does a company with dreadful leadership, despite [perhaps] having a great product, come to be exposed?

It seems to me if the SP goes up then most people, including the Board, just don't care. Where do ethics and profit meet?

As an employee I'd be trying to move on so I imagine the staff turnover would be dreadful... assuming another job can be found.

 

[rumpole]

A lot of people do jobs they don't particularly like, but if the boss is an a$$hole, then I think it's better to chuck it in and find something else.

If you left friends behind, try and stay in touch as much as you can, Skype, emails, social media etc will fill in the blanks. If the job may lead to something bigger, it's worth sticking with it I reckon.

 

[CanOz]

But how does a company with dreadful leadership, despite [perhaps] having a great product, come to be exposed?

It seems to me if the SP goes up then most people, including the Board, just don't care. Where do ethics and profit meet?

As an employee I'd be trying to move on so I imagine the staff turnover would be dreadful... assuming another job can be found.

Dreadful leadership can't last forever, so despite having a great product now, quality and cost issues will creep into the business and eventually someone will be asking for a change at the top. Even for flat top lines, changes happen so that growth can continue. The boards usually don't wait too long these days. You can imagine if you're bleeding talent and gaining a reputation for poor leadership then word gets out. Without a fresh supply of talent a business just can't continue profitably. Lots of zombie companies here in China with that same problem....no concept of leadership or of a continuous improvement culture.

 

[FxTrader]

Human resources 101 - people join companies. They leave bosses.

Regardless of how great the company or industry is, if you're working under a rotten boss then you'll end up looking for another job sooner or later. But a good boss can make even the most mundane work for a struggling company reasonably pleasant and retain staff.

So true, my current role is a case in point. The job itself is quite interesting and offers a lot of diversity in various product technologies. However, the 2 up manager is a moody, egotistical, temperamental hothead who no-one respects and he clearly only cares about retaining the good graces of the other managers who rate his performance. The mood is terrible and somewhat toxic due to this person and I have now started to look at other opportunities. Good managers are gold, if you find one stay with them as long as you still like the work.