Employee Job Satisfaction

Many years ago, I was an engineer and I learned a valuable lesson about job satisfaction. Not for myself, but for those who worked for me. What I found is that when others enjoyed there jobs because of me, I was rewarded with my own sense of job satisfaction.

The Secret - It's too soon to reveal the secret! I'll just continue with the story. I was in charge of getting some PC boards built. The folks who assembled them had many masters and many projects. The supervisor was loosely responsible for getting things done in a timely manner and balancing the loads of the pool of assemblers.

Well me being the low man on the totem pole, I was having a hard time getting anyone to work on my project. It was going slow. Meanwhile my boss kept asking me what the problem was and how long was it going to take. Being the practical person, I kept going back to the shop supervisor and asking for time estimates. It was a seemingly never ending loop.

Change in Tactics - It was starting to get to be problematic because schedules were slipping and I was the 'long pole' in the tent, meaning I was the single cause for slippage in the schedule I started pleading my case and getting louder and louder. Well the work got done but it was not quality work. It had to be redone and worst of all, it was not really getting done that much faster. I was failing and nobody was very happy let alone satisfied.

I had to find another way. So I decided to take my boss, who was a pretty big shot where I worked, down to the salt mines so to speak and show him what was going on. When I got there, everyone knew who he was and I did not announce I was bringing him there.

My intention was to get him to pressure the supervisor, but something else happened. I took him to all the different stations where the work was being done and introduced him to all the people who were doing the work. I told my boss about what each persons duties and specialties were and just showed him around. Then we left. We never even spoke to the supervisor.

Now The Secret! What happened next was just short of a miracle. Not only did my work get done but it was done well. Every time I went into the shop I was treated like a Norm on Cheers! Whatever I asked for I got.

The secret it turned out was to show appreciation to the people who worked for me. When I told my boss what they did and explained, in front of this "VIP", what they were doing and why their part was so important, these folks felt appreciated. From then on whatever I wanted I'd get. In fact others would ask me to put in a good word for them.

Appreciate is a key to Job Satisfaction. There are a number of strategies to show appreciation. There are a number of web sites where you can get some ideas on how to promote satisfaction and show appreciation. The point is to make sure you truly do appreciate the work of others and show them. If your experience is anything like mine your rewards will be plentiful.

Feel free to share your ideas on shows of appreciation in the comment section and go make someones day at your office tomorrow!