More than half of American workers are unsatisfied with their jobs. According to the study from The Conference Board surveying 5000 American households, only 45% of those surveyed viewed their jobs as satisfying.
Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build theory of positive emotions explains that positive emotions are valuable in that they help us broaden our scope of attention and cognition and help us build resources that we can draw on in the future (Fredrickson, 2003) . Increasing positive affect therefore may increase productivity and performance in a job due to an increase in resources which may be drawn on in performance of the work. It is not surprising, that an increase in positive affect increases life satisfaction (Cohn, Brown, Fredrickson, Mikels, & Conway, 2009) .
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Positive Work
If work is defined as the relationship between an employer an employee, then positive work is the relationship between an employee and employer that leads to both individual and organizational flourishing. This may be an overly broad definition, however different individuals and organizations may value different outcomes, and thus it makes sense to label work as positive when it leads to both sides achieving a higher level of functioning through the attainment of positive objectives. We can think of flourishing along the lines of a state of optimal functioning and experience (Ryan & Deci, 2001). Let’s examine this from the perspective of the individual and the employer in the following way. What are the positive outcomes that an individual may seek to achieve through work? What defines optimal functioning and experience? What are the positive outcomes an employer may seek from a relationship with an employee? What pathways may lead to positive outcomes for the individual and for the employer? What conditions are necessary and or sufficient? Finally, where is there overlap between pathways that lead to individual and organizational flourishing and how can we use those to create methods or interventions to increase flourishing for individuals and organizations.
Read moreWork has more than one definition (“work,” n.d.) . When we refer to work, we may be referring to what we do, but we most often are referring to employment. With employment, we perform a job in exchange for payment. Therefore work has meaning not just to the individual who is performing it, but also to the employer.
Most often, the employer is an organization. The employer wants to get certain tasks completed, in a certain amount of time, and with a certain quality. We could say that an employer wants high performance from the person who is working for them. As positive psychology has tended towards a focus on the conditions for the life well lived at the level of the individual, positive organizational scholarship (POS) and positive organizational behavior (POB) have emerged as new fields that examine positive functioning at the level of the group.
Read more“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it.” – Henry David Thoreau (n.d.)
Work is an important part of our lives. Consider the average American worker who starts a full time job out of college. During the prime years of life, from twenty-one or twenty two until retirement after the age of sixty, he or she will most likely work 40 hours a week or more. Consider that most people sleep seven to eight hours per week, and one can deduce that an individual might spend about 35% of his waking time at work. This is assuming an eight hour work day. With many Americans now working more than 50 hours per week, the time we spend at work is getting close to representing the majority of the time we spend awake. Whether it’s 35% or 50%, the time we spend at work is an important component of how we experience our lives. If we wish to improve our lives, experiencing more happiness, positive emotion, and increased well-being, it is important for us to understand the role of work as a part of life, not as something we balance with life.