Quantifying Job Satisfaction

CNN Money has an interesting article on an attempt to quantify job satisfaction by Economists John Helliwell and Haifang Huang at the University of British Columbia.

Some choice snippets;

Trust in management is by far the biggest component to consider. Say you get a new boss and your trust in management goes up a bit at your job (say, up one point on a 10-point scale). That's like getting a 36 percent pay raise, Helliwell and Huang calculate.

I definitely got a raise switching from a big corporation that wasn't doing so well to a smaller company that is clearly a success.

So, apparently, if you have to work, you might as well do something you like because the money alone won't make you that happy.

I can fully concur with this point as well, in fact it's one of my most important considerations. You're spending maybe 8 hours a day minimum doing something, and if you're like the average North American worker, you spend an hour getting there and an hour getting back per day. Make sure that you like where you're going!! Money is not enough.

Some more articles about happiness and the workplace;

CNN Money: C'mon, get happy. Seriously, it pays.

CNN Money: How To Buy Happiness. Cheap.

NPR: Finding Happiness in a Harvard Classroom via LifeHacker.

Technorati Tags: Health and wellness