It’s a no-brainer that loving (or even liking) your job leads to you sticking around longer. The next few Good Jobs posts will be about job satisfaction, and how it is about so much more than higher wages. We asked employees at DV agencies across Washington State in the 2011 Wages and Benefits survey: Overall, how do you feel about your job? Overwhelmingly, employees responded that they liked their job all or most of the time (93%). That’s excellent! We also asked employees and directors: What are your favorite things about your job? What are your least favorite things about your job? What are the main reasons you work for the organization? Click on the following Wordles to see what participants had to say. (If you are unfamiliar with how Wordles work, the bigger the word, the more people who said it).
Favorite things about your job:
Least favorite things about your job:
Participants’ main reasons for working at their organization were varied. Many said simply because they loved it. Others said that they believed in the mission of the organization and the cause. Some identified that they were survivors who had sought support from the organization, and they wanted to give back to the community in that same way. Others said that they wanted to be a part of an organization that was well respected in the community. Several people noted inspiring and effective leadership within the agency. Many mentioned that they loved the working environment, their team, their coworkers.
Others had more pragmatic answers, but still important to mention. These included: Close to home so the commute is excellent; Offered part time work with benefits; Offered a flexible schedule to accommodate school classes; Needed an entry level job to begin building experience in the field; Offered much needed health insurance.
Wow, what a list! It’s helpful to see the least favorite things, and think about how our own jobs measure up and how we might improve. AND it’s also clear that we have a very sturdy structure to build onto. Does this give anyone ideas about non-wage topics you might like to work on in your own organization? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
I am particularly interested in discussing organizational health and safeguarding against secondary trauma in addition to exploring the distinction between “inspiring and effective leadership” and leadership that has become stagnant and/or absorbed into the bureaucratic status quo that frequently produces “system FAILS.”