Do you have a job, career or calling?
I find it interesting to read on facebook and twitter how people talk about their work - some seem to have a good day everyday and feel energised by their work, while others can’t wait to get home each day! With a little investigating about what made people happy at work, I came across a study by Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin and Schwartz that found three common ways that people saw their work. It was either a:
Job: not a positive part of your life, something that gained financial rewards only and not enjoyment or fulfillment.
Career: where there was not only financial gain but also some career advancement within their organisation too.
or
Calling: where people are motivated to work not only for the financial or career advancement gain but they viewed their work as fulfilling and socially useful to the world.
Which one fits you right now? Do you think your line of work is a calling?
You would think that some jobs may be more in line with being a calling than others. For example, surely being a teacher or an international aid worker would always be a calling compared to being a factory worker or a cleaner! But apparently not. The researchers found there would be all three dispositions in most industries. So how can that be? How could someone view a job as a cleaner as a calling? Well therein lies the secret, it all depends on how we view things.
In a similar study, Wrzeniewski and Dutton interviewed a range of hospital cleaners, some who saw their work as a calling compared to others who saw it as a job. So what was the difference? The employees who saw their work as a calling did the following things:
- broadened their formal job boundaries to include additional tasks such as interacting with patients, bringing flowers to brighten the day of staff or showing visitors around.
- timed their work to be the most efficient.
- saw the bigger picture of the work they were doing eg helping patients get better.
The study went on to describe other examples in a whole range of industries including hairdressing, engineering, nursing, information technology and hospitality, demonstrating no matter what our industry, how we view our work will have a strong effect on our work satisfaction. It’s similar to the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who in his book Flow, explores how people reach flow (an optimal state of experience) in their work by working on goal directed activities that challenge our skills and expertise.
Work is such a big part of our lives and despite whatever circumstances we have to deal with at work, we as individuals can reframe our view of work to create meaning and possibly live a happier life as a result. This is my challenge to you. If you’re seeing your work as more of a job than a career or calling, how can you change your disposition?
posted by Alicia Curtis @ 9:21 AM
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