James the avid Arrod fan was discussing career dissatisfaction with a colleague. Never one to hold back in suggesting a topic to Arrod, he sent Dave this:

"How come young people seem dissatisfied with their current jobs, i.e. me, you, her, her bloke etc. Is there actually anyone who is "happy"? Why is this - that must be a blog!

"I reckon it is simply that people are always 'dissatisfied' if they are doing something they do not overly enjoy. Work counts as this and people have always had the same thoughts, only our generation seems to be voicing it more vocally. Maybe the reason behind the generation change is more important?"

I like this topic a lot and so am going to attempt an article rather than just a blog…

Basically I see this question boiling down to two main topics: why do people feel dissatisfied in their jobs and is there anything in the age / generation of people causing this? I think these are related, as James says, but I'll kick off addressing each individually.

Why are people dissatisfied with their jobs?

1. They don't feel valued
2. They work below their capabilities
3. Incompetence of colleagues and managers
4. They expect to hate work
5. They are made to feel that they can't change things
6. Their values are compromised

To a certain extent there is a cultural effect here. People expect to not enjoy work because that is the expectation placed upon them. In the same way 'everyone' is supposed to not enjoy school. It doesn't mean that learning can't be enjoyable, it just means that it is socially acceptable for the majority of people to not enjoy it and so the bad systems and practices that cause this are allowed to continue.

This cultural attitude is exacerbated by the lack of alternatives. It is difficult to find a job that you enjoy - the culture of most companies is (at least perceived as) the same. Again this universalism and pervasiveness makes the bad practices acceptable. Why is 'The Office' funny? - because it's so deeply, tragically true.

Further to this people work well within their capabilities. Although it is possible for a person to develop at amazing speed, the world of work moves far more slowly and as a result people are not pushed, developed or encouraged. They are instead pigeonholed for convenience of administration.

This leads to another issue - people feel under-valued. The attitude of managers, staff communications, the quality of the environment, the provision of parking, all these things can say to people that they are not valued. These are hygiene factors: if the company gets them right no one is more motivated, but get the wrong and it is strongly demotivating. There is a simple way around this issue, care enough about your fellow humans to think from their perspective. People know when you are not doing this - hence they feel under-valued.

OK, so things are bad, but they can be changed for the better, right? Well, if they can't, or if people perceive that they can't they have another avenue closed off…

The sum of this is that people have values. They want to be treated with respect, feel proud of what they do and be able to change the things they believe are wrong. Take this away and the values of the company stand in opposition to the values of the individual and this is the cause of the deep unease that is dissatisfaction with your job.

The generation gap

So what is it about this generation that exacerbates this? Surely this has always happened - no one enjoys work…

It is seen as an age-related thing - the idealism of youth comes up against the 'real world'. However, we could suggest that at this age people are not yet in positions of power, whereas the people with a strong need for power are. Thus, between the vested interest of the power-gamers and the fact that the people involved have fundamentally different motivators there is bound to be a clash.

But this has gone on for all time; assuming that dissatisfaction is more pronounced at the moment (and I believe it is), then a different explanation is needed alongside this argument.

One explanation for this could be the current rate of change. The pace of social and attitudinal change is currently so great that the new thinkers and old thinkers (either can be young or old) are much further apart than at other times in history. The new thinkers are human; they value people and enjoy diversity and challenge.

The old thinkers are motivated differently and not focussed on the humanness of people, just the processing of people. Why, when you send me a marketing flyer, do I get angry? - because you systematise me, reduce me to a target market, you don't care who or what I am. You treat me as a means to your ends rather than as an end in myself.

Why is voter apathy and work dissatisfaction so great at the moment? - because the gradient between the old and new thinkers is steep. Fundamentally the values of the old thinkers are radically different to those of the new. This shift in core values, and the resulting conflict, causes the feelings of dissatisfaction that we now experience.

I am not sufficiently idealistic to assume that this will tear down walls of resistance and revolutionise our existence. All that I see happening is that slowly, one by one, people are abdicating from traditional society and choosing to do things differently. Faced with dissatisfaction, people are removing themselves from the sources of it. The machinations of government and the self-justifications of the power hungry are irrelevant and inconsequential. So that's their life choice? I shrug my shoulders; I pity them a little, and get on with my life.

This poem sums it up for me:

Poem for Everyman
By John Wood

I will present you
parts
of
my
self
slowly
if you are patient and tender.
I will open drawers
that mostly stay closed
and bring out places and people and things
sounds and smells, loves and frustrations, hopes and sadness,
bits and pieces of three decades of life
that have been grabbed off
in chunks
and found lying in my hands.
they have eaten
their way into my memory,
carved their way into
my heart.
altogether-you or I will never see them-
they are me.
If you regard them lightly,
deny they are important
or worse judge them
I will quietly, slowly,
begin to wrap them up,
in small pieces of velvet,
like worn silver and gold jewelry,
tuck them away
in a small wooden chest of drawers
and close.





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