I recently created a survey entitled “Are You Happy At Work?” and shared it to receive responses. As a new college student exploring tons of career options, I wanted to get a glimpse of how people feel about their jobs and why.
I received 30 responses, and many people were quite thorough in their feedback, which I truly appreciated. I asked multiple questions, such as “Is what you're doing always what you've wanted to do?” and “If you could spend the rest of your life not worrying about time, money, or skill level, what job would you have?”
I also asked people to rate their job happiness on a scale from one to five. A response of five indicated that they love their job, and a one meant they hated their job. To my surprise, 63.3 percent of people answered that they love their job and it doesn’t even feel like work sometimes!
I also discovered many people have explored multiple career paths and are currently doing something they never thought they would be involved in. (So, college students like me, don’t be scared of getting stuck in a field you hate!)
Some of the most interesting responses to me were the answers to the question “What is the best thing about your job?” After analyzing my data, I discovered something intriguing—23 of the 30 responses to this question had something in common.
The majority of answers involved one specific thing: people. Whether it was coworkers, customers, or students, the best thing about many people’s job is the people.
We were made for community. It baffles me to realize how much we genuinely need each other in order to thrive. I was expecting the responses to “What is the best thing about your job?” to be something like “doing what I love” or “the things I’ve accomplished.” Instead, I discovered that job happiness might be more correlated with the who rather than the what.
My leadership teacher introduced an inspiring idea to our class last year. She explained that we are always asked what we want to be when we grow up rather than who we want to be. When you establish and develop who you want to be, you can find happiness in whatever you end up doing.
I honestly hate that I’m writing this because I want to know an answer. I wanted to know how to find your life calling and how to find that magical job you can’t wait to go to. But, I don’t think it is that easy. Each tiny task we have builds our character. No job is wasted—we can learn something from everything we do, even if we hate it.
Life can take us on a wild ride. As I said before, the majority of people who took my survey did not end up in the career field they expected to be in. If we spend our whole lives focused on our job title or the activities we are involved in, our whole identity could be taken away in an instant. However, if we spend our time growing, learning, and deciding we want to be kind, loyal or giving, we can never lose who we are.
You could be the best thing about someone’s job. You—their coworker, student, or customer. If your favorite thing about your job is not the people, trying being that person. You may find that when you strive to be the person you wish others would be to you, things will shift.
Tomorrow when you go to work, think of the impact you could have on someone’s day. That helping hand, smile, or consideration could be the best part of their career.
