Being passionate about our work is something most of us aspire to, so when someone tells us they love their job, naturally we are intrigued as to why!
Who doesn’t dream about loving the key thing we spend most of our time doing? Our time spent at work counts for a significant proportion of our lives and therefore, job satisfaction is no small matter. In fact, research shows that there is an intimate connection between job satisfaction and general happiness in life. It stands to reason - given the amount of time we spend there - our experience at work on a daily basis contributes to our overall physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
However, we can all take this a step further still. Job satisfaction is one thing, but to be able to say that we really love our job? That requires something more – and this won’t amount to the same for everyone, because we are all individuals. What we have noticed though is that there are several common factors, which contribute to being truly happy at work. If you can achieve some (if not all) of these, then chances are you will be well on your way to loving your job!
7 key reasons that make us love our job:
1. Flexibility
This is a key factor in happiness at work and both employees and employers alike are waking up to the importance and benefits of flexible working. Whether that entails flexible hours, job sharing or remote working options; striking the right work-life balance is fundamental to being able to love our jobs, so flexibility is a must.
2. Maternity and Paternity leave
This follows on from our previous point in pursuit of that all-important work-life balance! For a great many of us, starting a family is a significant and valid aspiration. Happily, gone are the days when a choice had to be made between having a career and having a family – today there should be no reason why we cannot have both. Fair and accommodating maternity and paternity leave policies facilitate this and provide peace of mind to both men and women wanting to exercise their right to the best of both worlds and will certainly give us cause to love our jobs.
Happily, gone are the days when a choice had to be made between having a career and having a family – today there should be no reason why we cannot have both.
3. Great leaders
We are all influenced by the people around us and therefore having positive role models at work can transform our working lives. Whether it’s an employer, manager or more senior colleague; having at least one great leader in our working lives can make an incredible difference to our motivation, self-belief and career progression. Having someone who recognises our potential, genuinely wants to see us succeed and who really has our back, can elevate from liking our job to loving our job.
Having someone who recognises our potential, genuinely wants to see us succeed and who really has our back, can elevate us from liking our job to loving our job.
4. Being involved in the why
A strong and positive company culture can make a great contribution towards job happiness, by ensuring everyone is aware of both their individual worth and the role they play within the bigger picture. By promoting a sense of community and a collective ethos, a great company culture is a real reason for us to love our jobs.
5. Positive accountability
Feeling in control of our lives makes us happy – and it has been proven that this is true of the workplace too. To feel really happy in our jobs, we must feel that we have a degree of ownership over our work. An increased sense of responsibility and positive accountability within our roles will definitely give us a reason to really love our jobs.
6. Scope for Individuality
We are all individuals and it’s important to feel recognised as such. Being seen for who we are and feeling valued for our unique skills and abilities is fundamental to our sense of self-worth – and nowhere is this more crucial than within the workplace. Some of us thrive within a rigid framework, others prefer to be given a freer rein; some of us work best under pressure, whereas others need to keep stress to a minimum to flourish. Having an employer who not only views their employees as individuals, but who also offers a tailor-made approach to management styles, will make loving our jobs easy.
7. Opportunities for growth
It’s hard to feel excited and passionate about a job with no prospects for career progression. To really love our jobs, we need to feel that we have prospects for growth and development – both in terms of moving up the career ladder, but also on a personal level too which can come in the form of experiential growth such as travel.
Stagnation of any kind is not inspiring; therefore, to be truly engaging, our jobs must offer opportunities to improve our skills, expand our knowledge, and expose us to new experiences that in turn, allow us to step up or see our role evolving and working more towards our established strengths.
To be truly engaging, our jobs must offer opportunities to improve our skills, expand our knowledge and expose us to new experiences.
There are many reasons to love our jobs and we won’t necessarily be able to boast all of them. No job is perfect, but having enough of these positives to outweigh any stresses and frustrations (which of course come with any job) is the secret to loving our jobs!
By Gemma Coldwell - Contributing editor
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