Rosenthal,WHAT DOES JOB MEAN?(work, quiz)
Wk Oct 3 2004 wc: 618
WHAT DOES YOUR JOB
MEAN TO YOU?
Dear Neil: Could you offer any guidance or assistance
about how to evaluate my job and my career?
I’m a computer software engineer. I’m paid moderately well and have good job
security, but I’m not feeling all that fulfilled and/or satisfied with what I’m
doing. How do I evaluate my job/career?
Struggling
in Longmont, Colorado
Dear Longmont: Here’s a list of questions to help you
evaluate your job, adapted from John Gottman’s book “The Relationship Cure”
(Crown). It will help you to think
things out more completely if you write your answers down and are as thorough
as possible:
- What does your job mean to you? What does it mean to you to provide your
service or product?
- What qualities go into creating a good working
environment? Does your current job
environment feel like a good working environment? If not, what work place conditions, if
changed or altered, would make the most difference to you?
- What does it mean to you to be part of a team? What are the costs and benefits of
knowing that others rely on you to do your job well?
- Are there things you’d like to change about the way
you and your co-workers relate to one another? What changes would you like to make?
- What role does ethics play in your job? What does it mean to do your job in an
ethical way? What does it mean to
treat your company/
co-workers/customers/clients
ethically? Where do you find it
difficult to operate with complete ethics on the job?
- What do you like about what you do? What do you dislike?
- What’s the most important thing you’d like to
accomplish in your current job?
- What are your future career goals?
- Do your job relationships effect your ability to
achieve those goals?
- How important is it to be compensated fairly for the
job you do?
- How important to you is recognition? How do you like to be recognized and
appreciated for a job well done?
How would you like your boss, co-workers and/or clients to show
that appreciation? How would you
like for your co-workers and/or clients to show that appreciation?
- Do you feel proficient and/or competent in what you
do? In which areas would you like
to increase your skills and competence?
- How is your job performance evaluated? How is that evaluation communicated to
you? What do you like or not like
about this process?
- How important is it to find balance amid the demands
of work, friends, family and your other interests?
- Imaging leaving your current job to retire or to take
another position. What would you
like your boss and co-workers to say about you at your going-away
party? What changes would you have
to make in order for that to happen?
- What do you get from your job that brings meaning to
your life? What is the deeper
meaning of your work—to yourself and to others?
More and more people are looking
for personal fulfillment in their lives beyond status and a paycheck. It is hard to feel develop deep job fulfillment
unless you feel that your work is personally meaningful and serves a higher
good.
The last I read on this subject,
the average person in our culture changes careers four different times in the
course of their lives. By the way, I’m
in my fourth profession myself.
_______________________________________________________
Neil Rosenthal is a licensed
marriage and family therapist in Boulder
and Denver. Call him at (303) 758-8777, or e-mail him
from his website www.heartrelationships.com