After our reunion, I wondered if my Harvard class \u2014 or even just my own friends there \u2014 were an anomaly. So I began looking for data about the nation\u2019s professional psyche. What I found was that my classmates were hardly unique in their dissatisfaction; even in a boom economy, a surprising portion of Americans are professionally miserable right now. In the mid-1980s, roughly 61 percent of workers told pollsters they were satisfied with their jobs. Since then, that number has declined substantially, hovering around half; the low point was in 2010, when only 43 percent of workers were satisfied, according to data collected by the Conference Board, a nonprofit research organization. The rest said they were unhappy, or at best neutral, about how they spent the bulk of their days. Even among professionals given to lofty self-images, like those in medicine and law, other studies have noted a rise in discontent. Why? Based on my own conversations with classmates and the research I began reviewing, the answer comes down to oppressive hours, political infighting, increased competition sparked by globalization, an \u201calways-on culture\u201d bred by the internet \u2014 but also something that\u2019s hard for these professionals to put their finger on, an underlying sense that their work isn\u2019t worth the grueling effort they\u2019re putting into it.<\/p>\n
This wave of dissatisfaction is especially perverse because corporations now have access to decades of scientific research about how to make jobs better. \u201cWe have so much evidence about what people need,\u201d says Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (and a contributing opinion writer at The Times). Basic financial security, of course, is critical \u2014 as is a sense that your job won\u2019t disappear unexpectedly. What\u2019s interesting, however, is that once you can provide financially for yourself and your family, according to studies, additional salary and benefits don\u2019t reliably contribute to worker satisfaction. Much more important are things like whether a job provides a sense of autonomy \u2014 the ability to control your time and the authority to act on your unique expertise. People want to work alongside others whom they respect (and, optimally, enjoy spending time with) and who seem to respect them in return.<\/p>\n
And finally, workers want to feel that their labors are meaningful. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be curing cancer,\u201d says Barry Schwartz, a visiting professor of management at the University of California, Berkeley. We want to feel that we\u2019re making the world better, even if it\u2019s as small a matter as helping a shopper find the right product at the grocery store. \u201cYou can be a salesperson, or a toll collector, but if you see your goal as solving people\u2019s problems, then each day presents 100 opportunities to improve someone\u2019s life, and your satisfaction increases dramatically,\u201d Schwartz says.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n An old truism: Many people who go through school thinking they are masterfully playing the game realize in middle age that the game has played them. https:\/\/t.co\/gGSjCng45U<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) February 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n