Job satisfaction

Posted: June 24th, 2005 | Author: | No Comments »

I’ll speak a little about job satisfaction. Not the term used by HR during the first week on the job, the real notion. First, I have a job that is in my area of studies (and interest) as well as a very enjoyable working environment. After a few months here, my short attention span is kicking in. I’m not excited to get to work, and I’m not too keen on getting in the “zone” and working like crazy! I’ve come to attribute this to a lack of really challenging work.

My theory is that the only way (for me, anyway) to enjoy the job is if it makes you so frustrated that you want to get out of the office at lunch as soon as possible. And you can’t stop thinking of ways to come up with solutions even as you’re having your lunch. It should be so that you can’t wait to get to work in the morning so you can continue what you were doing the previous day. But at the end of the day your brain is tired of solving problems!

For now, I’ll have to stay with my no-so-challenging job, but a side effect of this kind of occupation is that you start looking for challenging tasks, and if they can’t be found at work you end up satisfying that curiosity out of work. That’s when you end up giving up all your time working. In office, doing relatively brain-less stuff, and outside doing challenging work that you don’t realistically have time for!