Job Satisfaction

In the earlier stages of our youth, we look to those with more life experience than ourselves as models of our future. Dynamics are multiple, among which include number of children, who they have married (or divorced), type of home, and of course, where they work. This last item, work, is a key area of discussion that lives somewhere between aspiration and aptitude. Children are rarely bothered with how much they will make and are even less likely to connect the dots for how different jobs will affect their lifestyle (such as the impact upon a family for working graveyard shifts). Regardless, job satisfaction is the first area of interest in a given occupation, and this is typically the first consideration when at the beginning of one’s career or when in the position of making a career change.

Income

As our youth fades into the distance we are left with a new priority: responsibility. We become responsible for providing for our family, paying our bills (and those we owe a debt to), and preparing for our later years in life when we no longer have the strength to work as many hours in a day. This is where income eclipses job satisfaction as a priority, which is unfortunate but realistic. To complicate matters, there are not only an expansive number of ideas about money, but many of them are competing.

Lifestyle

At the end of life, there are two common considerations that are pondered by those on their death bed:

1. Was if it was a life well spent?
   and
2. What happens next?

Income has long disappeared as a top priority by this point, but job satisfaction will often be reminisced through stories of the glory days. An even greater priority than either of the former mentioned by those in their senior years is lifestyle. This is not only true for the lifestyle of retirement that was achieved as a result of one’s career, but also how life was lived while the career was fully engaged. During the prime of life many individuals build families and the amount of time spent together is impacted by one’s career. Factors that can impact scheduling outside of a normal workday are unexpected work orders that take up the evenings or weekends, military deployments that remove one from a family setting anywhere from a few months to over a year (sometimes two years or more), and overnight shifts to name a few. Other scheduling factors that compound a schedule such as continued education, commutes, weather and seasonal impact (unexpected snow plowing or summer farming as examples) are realities that also affect occupational performance and life outside of work. For those in freelance occupations, job security requires added hours to cover dry periods of income as well as cover financial losses from clients who do not pay. Since raising a family is a short and fleeting time, considering how a career will impact one’s lifestyle is perhaps the greatest priority out of all of these themes, though it is typically the first to be overlooked.