Wanted: Soul-sucking job with no satisfaction

By
Steve Williamson, VP Digital Marketing and Content, eRep, Inc.
Posted
Monday, March 11, 2019
Tags
#CareerPlanning
#Happiness
#Well-being
#Editorials
Wanted: Soul-sucking job with no satisfaction

Find Your Perfect Career - Learn how to match your personality to the ideal job or career for you-risk free-$49.95

My father was a sheet metal worker for the local power company. He worked the same job for 28 years in a basement shop devoid of color and permeated by the smell of metal and dust.

I asked him if he liked his job. "I'm proud of the work I do," he said. My dad was well known in the company for his craftsmanship. He didn't really answer my question, though, so I asked him again in a different way.

"Do you look forward to going to work each day?"

He paused to compose his thoughts, then said, "Every once in a while I'll have a day that is enjoyable."

I found his answer to be profoundly sad. "Why do you keep working at a job you don't really like?" I asked.

"Because it enables me to provide for my family and do the things I love at home."

This means-to-an-end viewpoint said a lot about how my father was dedicated to his family, but it also shed a lot of light on a massive problem, the scale of which I didn't learn until many years later.

How unhappy are we?

Surveys have shown that up to 70% of workers are unhappy in their job and 23% are actively disengaged. Another statistic that shocked me found that up to two-thirds of workers think about changing jobs up to once per second.

The workers aren't the only ones suffering from job dissatisfaction. Customer service experts have learned long ago there is a direct correlation between unhappy employees and unhappy customers.

Disengaged workers leave for greener pastures, causing expensive disruption as their original employer scrambles to replace them. That is especially costly in today's super tight job market.

Conversely, engaged workers are up to 200% more productive than their disengaged counterparts. Turnover with happy employees is at least 50% lower.

The statistics go on and on, but the bottom line is clear. Working at a job you don't enjoy is costly no matter how you look at it.

What is the solution?

There are countless reasons why people stay in jobs that suck out their souls. My dad stayed in his job for pragmatic reasons. He was very fond of predictability and having a family and a mortgage fosters that priority. Others stay in unhappy jobs because they are afraid of change.

Many people stay in a crappy job because they don't know what a great job looks like.

The way to determine the kind of role where you will be happiest is to understand how you are hardwired. For example, if you are the kind of person that loves getting things done and checking them off a list, that understanding helps you avoid jobs in which you do the same thing every day without any sense of personal accomplishment.

How do you discover the way you are hardwired?

Fortunately there is a tool that determines your personalty's DNA. It is a psychometric assessment called the Core Values Index. If you have ever taken a personality test or other psychometric assessment like Myers-Briggs MBTI, then you may be familiar with the concept. You answer some questions and get a report that outlines your personality, usually expressed as a combination of categories.

The Core Values Index, or CVI as it's commonly known, works in a similar manner but stands out above the rest in three ways.

The CVI only takes 8 minutes to complete, and it's super easy. You are presented groups of four words and you choose the two that resonate with you the most. This process is repeated with different groups of words about two dozen times. It's very quick and easy.

The second way the CVI stands out is you don't need to take special classes to understand your results, nor do you have to hire an expensive consultant to explain them to you. When you complete your CVI assessment, you are given a 17-page report that is customized specifically for you. It starts with a very easy to understand summary and graphs, and expands beyond that for those who wish to learn more about how they are hardwired in greater detail.

The final way the Core Values Index stands above the competition is its repeat reliability score. Repeat reliability describes the ability of an assessment to produce consistent results every time you repeat the test. Perfect is 100%. The CVI has a repeat reliability score of 97.7%. This means that if you take the CVI at age 20 and again at age 50, your scores will differ by less than 3%. No other psychometric assessment or personality test even comes close (Myers-Briggs barely cracks 70%).

Take the CVI and find out how you are hardwired. Read your report to gain powerful insights about the kind of activities that resonate with you the most and which ones to avoid. Use this information to understand the kind of roles where you will shine.

We spend nearly a third of our lives at work. Do you really want to spend that much time doing something you don't enjoy?

Take the CVI today and find your path to job happiness.

https://erep.com/core-values-index/

Go to eRep.com/core-values-index/ to learn more about the CVI or to take the Core Values Index assessment.

Get unlimited job listings on eRep.com/jobs/ by signing up for an Employer Account today. → Sign Up Now


Steve Williamson

Steve Williamson

Innovator/Banker - VP Digital Marketing and Content, eRep, Inc.

Steve has a career in project management, software development and technical team leadership spanning three decades. He is the author of a series of fantasy novels called The Taesian Chronicles (ruckerworks.com), and when he isn't writing, he enjoys cycling, old-school table-top role-playing games, and buzzing around the virtual skies in his home-built flight simulator.

View additional articles by this contributor

Share This Article

Get Started with the CVI™

Stay Updated

Employer Account Sign-up

Sign up for an employer account and get these features and functions right away:

  • Unlimited Job Listings on eRep.com
  • Applicant Search
  • Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
  • Unlimited Happiness Index employee surveys
  • 3 full/comprehensive CVIs™
  • No credit card required — no long-term commitment — cancel at any time

Write for eRep

Are you interested in writing for eRep? Read our submission guidelines.


Learn more about the CVI