I was on my way to my lab, as a daily routine. Morning 9 a.m. I was early today. I was happy that I will be able to manage a seat in the bus. I was not the only one crossing the road, and hence there’s no fear of scarily fast bikers knocking me off the ground. Everyday hundreds of people join me on the way; some have become known faces by now. No known faces were there today. But somehow the expressions seemed so much similar. Unpredictable. I wished to know whether they were happy with their jobs as I was unsure about mine. Read everyday on some magazine or Yahoo news or some random Facebook post about this word called job satisfaction. Have also read in some magazine about certain number of criteria which determine the job satisfaction of a person. Sometimes the salary, sometimes the role takes the first place in deciding one’s job satisfaction.
Agreed. Then comes along the thought – how many of these people travelling with me are satisfied with their jobs? And even if many of them are, then whether job satisfaction=happiness? If yes then why are their faces so expressionless? If not then what stops people from becoming happy rather than just being satisfied? Do they not realize that they can be happier or have they just accepted the traditional way of going to a college and getting a placement in a company at the end of the degree? Most importantly I was puzzled whether making money, is the only way to happiness?
Once came across this phrase “Work to live, do not live to work”. I felt it to be very relevant. When we say “job satisfaction”, it definitely means we are depending on the job or the job providers to make us feel satisfied. Shouldn’t this be the other way round? Shouldn’t we ourselves be making the call for what and how things make us satisfied or happy?
These questions kept making rounds in my minds, until I realized that I had missed my stop and reached the same destination as the few others.
Sumana Biswas
Chennai
'Campus Writing' 