Finding meaningful and satisfying work through personal fulfillment

¶ … Satisfying Work

People have different reasons why they work or why they choose to be on a paid labor. Some do it to earn a living thereby being able to buy the basic items that he/she needs for school, home or just for personal consumption. These are the type of people who value money more than the type of work itself. These are the type of people who sees the work as the medium for survival.

Some join the paid labor force for mere personal fulfillment. These are the people who enjoy working while earning. What matters for them is the type of work they are having and not the compensation that goes along with it.

Because of the varied reasons people related to work, there is one big question that lies within. How one finds fulfillment and enjoyment on the type of work he/she has? Can anybody manage his own emotions and make himself enjoy the work he has?

Purpose of the Study

This paper is aimed at analyzing the various ways and means to find meaningful, purposeful and satisfying work. Specifically, this paper is intended for:

finding the real essence of work and defining the concept of "meaningful, purposeful and satisfying work" categorizing the different factors that affect an individual's decision for the choice of work identifying the factors that makes an individual find happiness with the type of work he/she has

Methodology

First, this paper conducted an interview with an individual who has been working for several years already in a privately own company. This person has been commended by the supervisor because of his evident passion for work. The person has been awarded twice for being a model employee of the department and he really fits the qualification of a person who has found "meaningful, purposeful and satisfying work."

Some of the questions that were asked for the interviewee are:

Tell me about your work. What is satisfying about it? Do you find any difficulty in that line of work? How do you overcome such difficulties?

How did you get into this line of work? What keeps you in it? How do others help keep you motivated, engaged? Who are they? How do they support you?

How do you handle change? How is your current work different from work situations in the past? What accounts for such differences?

How do you see for yourself in the future?

Describe any other insights you can share with others about what makes work satisfying?

Furthermore, an in-depth literature review is done to get more and detailed concepts regarding the work and how it can be made more meaningful, purposeful and satisfying. With the information that are sourced out, the responses of the interviewee can be validated and/or emphasized.

Finding Job Satisfaction

Finding a job is easy, but finding satisfaction in the job is a different thing. Not all people who are part of the labor force can find extreme feeling of happiness and fulfillment when they are working. Some factors that may affect dissatisfaction in the workplace are:

Low wages

Because of the ever changing world, technological advancement and ever-increasing costs of living, more and more employees find their salaries and wage not enough to accommodate their everyday living expenses. With low wages, satisfaction and happiness inside the company will really be hard to achieve.

Indefinite employee benefits and Unsecured Health insurance

Aside from the salary, more and more employees are becoming more concerned on the employee benefits. These may include clothing, housing and transportation allowances, rice or food ration, vacation or leave benefits, medical benefits such as health card, maternity and paternity benefits and the likes. Employees would also want to ensure about the government taxes and benefits which would assure that they will be gaining something even after they retire from working. Hence, if the company does not have any written contract regarding these benefits, these will surely become an issue in the company and will not provide any positive motivation for the employees.

Unaccommodating Supervisors and Colleagues

Most often than not, wages and benefits are not the only thing that add to the dissatisfaction of the workers. The supervisors and the colleagues will ultimately become part of one's daily life. A worker will go everyday, and work everyday with these people. If there will be no positive interaction among all the workers and the supervisors, the workers will not feel any comfort working in this kind of environment. With unaccommodating supervisors and co-workers, meaningful, purposeful and satisfying work is also impossible to have.

If these factors are present in a certain workplace, what the workers normally do is to establish a certain group now called as the "working alliance." Working alliance as a concept has been well developed in the personal counseling literature and, in particular, the psychoanalytic counseling literature noted by Pattona and Meara (1992).

Psychoanalytic concepts are relevant for a broad range of problems in everyday life including educational and vocational indecision - these psychoanalytic concepts have been slow to influence both the career and personal counseling literature for reasons that have more to do with the diverse origins of psychoanalysis and counseling than with their usefulness in helping clients (Horvath and Simonds, 2000).

Robbins (1992) presented a historical perspective on the working alliance as part of a larger goal of demonstrating its centrality in psychoanalytic counseling. Seeds of the idea of alliance can be traced to Freud's (1923/1961) writings which he recognized the importance of the patient's "positive conscious transference." Greenson (1967) identified the three-part distinction when referring to the relationship of the analysts and the patient: (a) the transference relationship, (b) the real relationship, and - the working alliance. In psychoanalytic counseling, the transference reactions are unrealistic and inappropriate and always take precedence if they intrude. In classical psychoanalysis, the transference is deliberately developed and analyzed in the treatment situation and is the major vehicle for bringing about change in the client. On one hand real relationship refers to what is authentic and genuine to the relationship between the client and counselor - the working alliance here is realistic and appropriate, but it is a phenomenon created by them and is particular to the situation of counseling. It consists of that sector of the overall experience of the counseling participants characterized by their collaboration, mutuality and cooperation with regard to the work of counseling. The working alliance provides the motivation to work in the session with the counselor as well as the ability to the work required in the counseling.

Horvath and Greenberg (1994) explain that in the current notion of working alliance, "collaboration" between therapist and client is the key element. At its best, the working alliance provides a safe environment for clients to explore themselves and a relationship in which clients' "key relational issues" are defined. Bordin (1979) defined the working alliance as being based on three components: the agreement on overall goals, the agreement on tasks that lead towards achieving these goals, and the emotional bond between the therapist and client. The Working Alliance Inventory developed by Horvath and Greenberg (1994) includes sub-scales patterned after these three components.

Studies conducted by Horvath and Greenberg (1989) indicated that both therapist and client ratings of their working alliance are correlated with therapy outcome, especially ratings on the task and goal sub-scales. Similarly, Horvath and Symonds (1991) used meta-analysis to synthesize the results of 24 studies examining the relationship between working alliance and psychotherapy outcome, and found "moderate but reliable" relationships between good working alliance and successful therapy outcome [the overall effect size (ES) was 0.26]. The client's perception was the best predictor of treatment outcomes followed by therapist's and observer's, respectively.

What is known about the variables that contribute to a good working alliance? The working alliance has been examined in relation to several client and therapist variables. Mallinckrodt and Nelson (1991) reported positive relationships between therapist training level and the goal and task sub-scales of the working alliance. However, Dunkle and Friedlander (1996) failed to find a relationship between therapist experience level and client's perception of the goal and task components of working alliance. Dunkle and Friedlander (1996) did report positive relationships between the bond scale and client perceptions of some therapist characteristics such as hostility, social support, and degree of comfort with closeness in interpersonal relationships.

The quality of overall working alliance was found to be related to characteristics of clients, such as the quality of a client's current and past relationships, type of presenting problems, levels of adjustment (Horvath & Greenberg, 1989), and social support and psychological symptoms (Mallinckrodt, 1996). Tyron and Kane (1993) investigated whether working alliance predicted Ethnicity, Working Alliance, and Outcome - 5 mutual vs. unilateral termination. They reported a relationship between therapist perception of strong working alliance and mutual termination.

It is quite typical for any company to have a union initiated by the employees themselves. It is through the union that employees hope that they will now have a venue where they could talk about their company, the employers and their co-employees. It is in this union where the members hope to voice out their concerns, grievances and praises for the company. Employees believe that through the unions they have established, employees will become vigilant to let the employers know of their situation. In the same manner, employers also hoped to "use" the unions to talk with the employees and let them understand the current situation of the whole company.

Union" is defined as "...an organization of employees formed to bargain with the employer; "you have to join the union in order to get a job" (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn, 2006).

For those who are pro-union, they would always say that people have the right to peaceably assemble. Employees also have the right to organize, ironically guaranteed in the National Labor Relations Act. If an employer caught wind that two co-workers were discussing unionizing, it simply could fire them for "fraternizing" during off-work hours.

For those who are against the union, they think that it is by establishing groups, workplace tensions erupted. Those who are members of the union feel that they are superior and that they are "elite" members of the company. They have somebody or groups of "friends" whom they can talk and share their plans with. They have people who would be willing to listen to their grievances regarding the company. And once they decided to make an action, any member of a company union would be confident enough that there would be somebody who would always back them up. These are the very reasons why many bosses are not so comfortable in allowing his/her subordinates to establish any union.

Alliances in the workplace is always in the positive light for there are still some alliances where the members use the "power" of the alliance to impose something for the company. Those who are pro- alliances, they believe that because of that, they now have a medium to speak out for themselves and for the other employees as well.

The rules against fraternization in the workplace is simply outlawing human nature. Understandably, some businesses may need rules against excessively long fraternization during work hours. But a flat no-fraternization-ever policy is surely an overreaction. Denying human nature when it comes to co-workers is laughable. Co-workers network, develop friendships, even build long-lasting intimate relationships with one another. Human interaction is complex and often messy. Fortunately, any businessperson who doesn't acknowledge that probably won't be in business for long (http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/OPINION01/508230312/1004,2005).

Likewise, there are companies who would prefer not to have any union established by the workers/employees. This is because they fear of having any rallies or assemblies initiated by the employees. These rallies, they think, will only result to negative turn around of the company earnings. At the same time, these rallies will only put the company's name in the bad light once the media comes in.

In some cases, to prevent a union, a company normally assigned several "certified bargaining agents." Through a union certified bargaining agent, the company will be ensured that no union movements against the company will be held.

According to a study conducted by the Labor force union members, there are only 16% of the force who are union members. This is entirely because there are really some firms who do not approve of unions. Also, the fact that there are more negative rumors than positive ones referring to union members discouraged more and more labor force in joining any unions.

It also best to note that no employer should be assisting the union members. It is illegal (for some countries) for an employer to assist a union because this may emboldened the unions more, and may encouraged other workforce to establish a union.

Fraternization, on the other hand, is the traditional term used to identify personal relationships that cross the usual bounds of acceptable senior-subordinate relationships. Fraternization also includes improper relationships between senior and junior officer members and between senior and junior enlisted personnel (http://www.tpub.com/content/advancement/12024/css/12024_49.htm,2006).

Forming alliances in the workplace is just establishing groups of people with which the members have common interest and views about the company. Workplace alliances are advantageous in a way that it offers diversion for the employees. It can create closer bond within the employees. It can offer a much happier aura inside the company for all the members are in good terms with each other.

On the other hand, workplace alliances could be negative in a way that more employees would be confident enough to demand for some things which are not commonly offered by the company. They could feel confident because there are other persons who support the idea (their brothers and sisters in the union). Also, this is not an advantage for those who are not members of the union. They will feel being left out. They will feel insecure and will result to competition and probably backbiting.

So, can workplace alliances create tension inside the company? Yes, it can probably do so. But there are always two sides of the coin. It may not also create tension. It is always in the boss' hands to balance everything. Any boss do not have the right to stop his/her employees from mingling with his/her co-employees. But he/she can always control the situation so as to prevent whatever tension may erupt.

Now, if the company is compelled to be of help with the alliance, there is the Human Resource or therapist that could handle the issue. It is the human resource manager's duty to "echo" the union's problems and grievances to the employers. It is also his/her duty to pacify the union members and let them feel that they are being taken care of (Maera and Patton, 1994).

Meanwhile, a human resource manager must also be loyal to the employer. It is his/her duty to voice out to the unions what the employers are doing in order to maintain good labor standards of the company.

So if labor unions and working alliances is not the best option to maintain higher job satisfaction rate in the workplace, how can one company keep the workers satisfied and fulfilled? To maintain a workplace where people feel the satisfaction from work, there must be:

Clear Job Requirements and Expectations

Before one can enjoy working in any workplace, he must know first the kind of expectation that the company has on him.

A sometimes it's difficult to know all of the requirements at a job when those in charge are poor communicators. Some bosses and supervisors are vague with expectations, assign new tasks with little advance notice, request new tasks without providing training, and inadvertently set workers up to fail in other ways..."(Scott, 2006)

Opportunity for Rewards and Recognition

Any individual needs to feel recognized and wants to be rewarded from time to time. This is an innate behavior of all human beings. Inside the workplace, one can team up with a supportive colleague and 'agree to listen to each other's successes and provide support to one another." These things can nurture a worker emotionally and remind himself of the importance of the work he does, especially if he works in a job or field where these rewards are barely there (Scott, 2006).

Maintaining a Balanced Lifestyle

Keeping a balanced lifestyle is important particularly to a person who's been part of the paid labor force.

A if it's all work and no play, one may find his ability to work beginning to wane" (Scott, 2006).

Thus a worker must ensure that he provide has still has time for other activities outside the workplace like "relationships, hobbies, sleep, self-care, exercise, healthy eating, and other important features of a healthy lifestyle."

Thinking Positively

To achieve meaningful, purposeful and satisfying work, it must start on the positive outlook first.

Developing an optimistic point-of-view and changing negative self-talk patterns can go a long way toward helping the worker see the glass half-full, as well as actually making him more productive and less stressed! Thus, one must assess his current state of mind, and make some changes in himself so that he sees things in a more positive light, and he may just find himself much happier where he is are in life" (Scott, 2006).

Conclusion

To be in a meaningful, purposeful and satisfying work requires action from the supervisors, the colleague or co-workers and the person himself. Money is an important aspect for job satisfaction, but that is not the only factor. Relationships among the supervisors and the subordinates, interaction among the workers and clear expectations to and from the company or the top management will assure that a purposeful and satisfying work can be attained. More so, the worker himself must do some changes to his own lifestyle making sure that he maintains positive outlook and has a balanced way of living so that he will not feel any work burnt out.

Reference List

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