How to love your job and build career satisfaction

MANY people don't like their jobs.

- TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC

Prioritising where to focus your energy will make you both better at your job and happier in it. | Freepik

(Freepik)

On the one hand, this is a pity as it probably means that most employees are not leveraging their full potential or being given an opportunity to flourish.From a more pragmatic perspective, there's no reason to be overly dramatic about this. For most of our evolutionary history, work was just that: work. It was rarely done purely for the enjoyment. And today, many top-performing employees are not particularly satisfied with their jobs, and many people who really love their jobs are not high-performing employees.

The degree to which people enjoy their jobs is more dependent on their personality and their job performance than the typical variables assessed in engagement surveys.

That said, there are ways to increase your affinity for your work - with definite benefits to be derived. From a common sense point of view, it's easy to understand that, all other things being equal, it would be more beneficial to enjoy your job than to dislike it. However, systematic scientific evidence also strongly suggests that people who are more satisfied in their careers tend to be more productive, loyal and ethical; and less antisocial, corrupt, stressed or ill at work.

So what can you do to enjoy your work more? Here are the factors you can control and which you should aspire to influence in order to be more satisfied with your job and career: