Like politics and moods @ work, what makes me happy @ work is more determined by my personality than the situation.
I was listening to a radio programme and the topic for panel discussion was what are the factors which make people happy at work? You can imagine how frustrated I felt as the panellists proceeded to talk about employees not as individuals but as people with similar behaviours. But we know that is not the case. We know that Clare always remembers birthdays. She buys the card and makes sure we all sign it. She will organise the whip round for a leaving present for a Gemma or Pete something which perfectly fits her supporter profile.
Clare fits the supporter working profile and loves her job because she believes she is part of a great team, who get on well together and enjoy each other’s company. The work can be repetitive and boring, but the companionship more than compensates. Clare is a real people person and personal interactions at work are what she enjoys. She is very helpful and ensures that new starters know where the coffee is and she will introduce them to colleagues to ensure that they feel welcome and at home.
When Clare asks Pete who is in charge of firewalls to sign Susie’s birthday card she is surprised when he asks, who is Susie? Peter signs and is pragmatic about Clare’s explanation that Susie has been part of her team for five years and located the other side of the open plan office.
Pete is an analyst. He enjoys his job and is motivated predominantly by the constant technical challenges that the ongoing checkpoint upgrades present.
David matches the influencer working profile and loves his job, because the sales figures are good and he is currently top of the performance tables. He spends more time visiting the office now as he relishes the recognition and praise he constantly receives from his colleagues. The healthy commission statement means that he is also booking that safari holiday he keeps promising himself and he will choose Meribel again this year for his week's skiing.
Things were different a few months ago when he went through a bad patch and badly missed his sales target. David spent most of his time then out of the office and working from home. He is not good at facing the music when the chips are down. He blamed globalisation and a recessionary blip as the cause for the bad figures. It could not be his fault as he knows he is a highly successful sales executive.
Gemma loves her job. She is a creative and a very talented graphic designer and is now in charge of the studio. The new campaign which means she reviews performance of the SLA against the KPI and develops creative design solutions across a wide range of POP which capitalises on her conceptual expertise in 2 and 3D and is just the kind of environment she loves and finds stimulating. She relates well to Pete in IT as they both focus on the task in hand rather than spending too much time establishing rapport with the people in the departments.
So Clare, Pete, David and Gemma are all happy at their work as their roles fit and match their working personality styles.
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