Happy at Work
Happiness seems to be one of those words that can only be de-fined in general terms, like love. It is easy to know when people are not happy, but determining happiness is a little harder. People often say that they feel happy or that something makes them happy. Greet-ing cards are filled with one-liners defining happiness saying things like," Happiness is..." and then going on to compare it to a kiss from a child or a puppy dog. If achieving happiness was really that trite then no one would have much trouble achieving happiness. Happiness at work is really a more completed recipe where many personal ingredi-ents are needed to make it turn out as people hoped.The ingredients or factors that determine happiness on the job are universal in that all workers need a combination of these to be happy. The determinants of happiness could be money, a feeling of se-curity, and feelings of making a contribution or being involved. Work-ers may need validation or appreciation, a sense of belonging, feelings of accomplishment or achievement, or respect or power. Jobs that provide these determinants or values in the quantities that the individ-ual needs are good jobs in that the worker is going to be happy. Jobs that provide most of these deter
minants may still be unhappy jobs be-cause the job may be missing that one value that a specific individual needs the most. Two different people see the same job differently be-cause the values of the individual are the most important determinants of whether or not the job is a happy one. What were exposed were my stronger values of needing a sense of accomplishment and involvement. I found out that I valued, more than money, work that was purposeful, fulfilling and that promoted lifelong learning. There might be jobs in the business world that could support these values and make me happy, but they all rooted in the making money and that value was not that important to me anymore. I decided that I valued adventure in work more and somehow wanted to explore my Hispanic roots, having a Mexican mother. The career center helped me to prioritize my values and look at what strengths I could take from my work experience. Happiness on the job is closely related to contentment of values. In fact, happiness could just be another name for contentment. People say they are happy but what they really mean is that they are content. To say that they are happy in their jobs means that they have achieved the right balance of value support; people are satisfied with the way things are at work, they are content. Discontent or unhappi-ness comes into play when there are changes in the work environment or in own personal priorities concerning values. If happiness is con-tentment with the proportional mix of value support, then unhappiness is caused by an imbalance. We are unhappy in our jobs because we are no longer content with the way in which our values are bei
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Approximate Word count = 1116
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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