Where to Find Job Satisfaction

Leaving for work, the man that runs Virginia’s Flatwood Refuse and Recycling Center, told his wife, “For the next 12 hours, I’m going to be laughing. I’m going to be enjoying myself.’

Like some of us, he loves his job.

Job Satisfaction

At the dump

With no trash pickup, many locals bring their garbage to the county dump. When they arrive, Willie Shanks greets them by name and might offer one of his 1500 t-shirts saying Flatwood. In videos that commemorate his “trophies,” he has galloped wildly on a pink inflatable unicorn with a water spraying horn. At his sharing shack, visitors could acquire an old vacuum or a discarded tanning pod. Predictably, Willie runs the compactor, but also, he does a community shred day, public service announcements, and receives confession. The “downside” is the 50 pounds he gained from all of gifts his “constituents” (as he calls them) bring him.

This is Willie with the unicorn:

Asked about his job, Shanks says he spreads beauty. If people bring trash to him, then there is less of it on the streets. Perched in the back of a pickup wearing pajamas, and surrounded by garbage, he was cheered as he rolled by during the Christmas parade. It does not seem to matter that, at $38,000 a year, his pay is less than average. Instead, he expresses his sense of accomplishment.

Nationally

For reasons that range from flexibility to relationships, a Pew Survey revealed why we like work:

Our Bottom Line: Motivation

I’ve always liked what writer Daniel Pink said in Drive. Discussing motivation, he says that once we are sufficiently paid at work, we need autonomy (directing our own lives), mastery (desire to get better and better at a task), and purpose (“yearning to do what we do in a service larger than ourselves”). I would suggest that autonomy, mastery, and purpose provide the most job satisfaction and well-being.

So, where to find job satisfaction? In surprising places.

My sources and more: Today’s post began with this article. From there, looking for studies of worker satisfaction, I wound up at Pew, and Gallup, here and here. Always though, I return to Daniel Pink and econlife’s “good life” post.

Please note that several of today’s sentences were in a past econlife post.