For reasons unknown to even me, I’ve taken to explaining job satisfaction as if it were a coffee table. Job satisfaction has four legs, actually it has five, but that blows my analogy all to hell; so let’s just play with four legs of job satisfaction, shall we?
In no particular order:
Job Satisfaction Leg# 1: “Are you fairly compensated?”
This is a highly relative and subjective leg, but it boils down to this: do you feel like you’re being paid a fair amount for the work you’re doing? Are other people in your same position and sector getting paid roughly the same as you are? Are your cubicle and office mates in your company that are performing similar duties roughly in the same income bracket as you? Does it seem like your effort and talents are being rewarded proportionately?
Job Satisfaction Leg# 2: “Do you like what you’re doing?”
Are you counting down the minutes and seconds to lunch or quittin’ time? Do you find your daily tasks rewarding or are they empty, repetitive, and soulless? To borrow a classic career suitability metaphor, does your day to day job match the color of your parachute? Are you stuck dealing with legacy systems, spaghetti code, in a language that hurts your eyes, nay your very well being to look at (cue the nods from the peeps still supporting VB6 apps)?
Job Satisfaction Leg# 3: “Do you like who you’re working with?”
Are your co-workers dim and mediocre? Are you unsure if you’ve stumbled into a psych ward where thorazine has been over prescribed? Is it painful to interact with your team? Is your boss an idiot, or worse an idiot AND a micro manager? Do you have to take a deep breath followed by a sigh, before opening that door in the morning to entering the building?
Job Satisfaction Leg #4: “Stability/Consistency”
This one might be tied to the a fore mentioned “idiot boss” who happens to be a tad bit mercurial and is fast and loose with the rage-firings. It may also relate to a volatile sector or less than solvent company. I worked at a large Swedish financial services company during the first dot com boom. Once the DOW & NASDAQ plummeted you could smell the layoffs coming.
If things are good where you work, do you have any reason to suspect that would change (acquisitions, mergers, layoffs, product consolidation or sun setting, etc)
Consistency refers to process and expectations. Do you know what to expect and what’s expected of you, or is it heltzer skeltzer, chaos, anarchy, dogs and cats sleeping together every day?
I recognize that many of you probably work for startups, and the lack of stability is understood. So I offer–
Job Satisfaction Leg # 4.5 ” Culture”
You can like the people you work with, but if a company has a backwards culture, it won’t matter much. Even if your co-workers are awesome, toiling away in a low-trust, top down, micromanaged culture will quickly suck the joy out of work. It amuses the hell out of me to see it compared to a Stockholm Syndrome.
OK… Job Satisfaction is Like a Coffee Table (Sorta), So What?
Glad you asked, before I started adding even more legs. Job satisfaction is like an arachnid doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
The whole flipping point is this. You can live with a coffee table with one leg shorter than the other. If you like your coworkers, enjoy the hacking you’re doing, the boss doesn’t give you too much crap (e.g. you have some autonomy), and the gig seems pretty stable you might be ok with leaving some money on the table. Most people can live with a slightly wobbly coffee table. You just get used to stacking things to one side or not leaning on one side or the other.
When I spent time in the non-profit sector this is how I rationalized it anyways 
I’d accept a little less salary to not have to work for the man, be able to work on cool projects with smart, interesting people, and be able to decide which tools and technologies to use (within reason/budget).
BUT, if I’m underpaid AND you start to take away some of my autonomy and freedom or hire some real incompetent assholes, my coffee table might start to wobble pretty badly, and I’ll start looking for a better fit…
My advice to those disenfranchised with their jobs. Inventory their job satisfaction coffee table. Ask yourself, “Am I getting paid reasonably? Do I like what I’m doing, who I’m doing it with, and whether the good times seem like they’re gonna continue or not?”
related:
The Wetware Crisis: the Dead Sea effect
Daniel Pink – Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (RSA Talk)
UPDATE: I’m going to foolishly apply this metaphor to my current situation as an example.
- Am I fairly compensated?
- I think so… I’m paid within the range for people in this position and live a reasonably comfortable life within my means. This leg is solid.
- Do I like what I’m doing?
- I love product management, but I’m not doing a lot of it on a day to day basis. I don’t have the ownership over the product or features that I would like. This leg is shorter than I’d like it be.
- Do I like who I am working with? I love my team and the people around me. Very cool, bright, and talented people. But something isn’t quite right and this leg isn’t as long as it should be — see leg 4.5
- Is it stable / consistent?
- Change and chaos seems to be a constant. This would be ok in a 5 person fledgling startup, but a 6 year old 50 person operation should have stabilized these processes by now. I’ve been here 6 months and seen near 100% turn over (in my office). This leg is almost non-existant.
- (4.5) Culture
- I won’t bash the culture, but suffice to say, this leg is also shorter than it should be.
So, anyone looking for a bright, talented, and geeky product manager?
I look for interesting work, nice people to work with and a financially stable company. I usually have to settle for two out of three.
Really enjoyed the post, and I agree: It’s OK that one leg’s shorter. But when there’s two… Go elsewhere!