Do You Have a Good Job?

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What It’s About: When we write and talk about culture, people often assume that this applies to high level organizations or more about knowledge workers. That’s not the lens we look at however. Ultimately, it’s not the type of job but rather what happens during work, regardless of its nature. You can have lousy pet grooming jobs and good ones. The same applies to software development, doctors and every other spectrum of occupation. Not everyone wants high paying, complex jobs. That doesn’t mean lower paying, straightforward jobs can’t be great and vice versa. What we do believe is that in thriving cultures, ALL jobs regardless of types are intentionally designed to be “good.”

So What?: Governments and industry measure employment as a regular occurrence. However, there is little common agreement and consistent measure on the quality of a job. How many highly valued, or measurably good ones are available? My understanding is that folks like the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Aspen Institute are looking into this. They are planning on publishing research based criteria in the near future.

In our case, we see good jobs having the following minimal characteristics (from janitor, security guards, to software engineers and senior executives).

Respect: People see you as you are, and respect is afforded to each other as a human being not based on job stature or other external considerations.
Voice: You are listened to and invited to authentically speak up.
Safety: You feel that physical and psychological safety is a priority.
Equity: You see transparent fairness and justice in policies, processes and pay.
Mobility: You're developing skills that are transferable in providing the ability to move elsewhere, regardless if people chose to or not.
Purpose: You understand why what you do matters.
Autonomy: You’re given reasonable flexibility in how things get done.
Leadership: Your boss and peers genuinely care about you.
Belonging: You matter, you feel at home and welcome most of the time.

Now What?: The research may alter our perspective, and these characteristics are not intended to be comprehensive. However, they are not that hard to apply if we put intentionality to it. Design every job to embrace these qualities, more than less, and you will have great talent and a thriving culture. Back to the good old Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

- Lorne

One Millennial View: It seems some people get a masochistic kick out of enduring and tolerating undesirable work conditions. Did some of us grow up learning to just be satisfied with a paycheck from doing work we don’t have any passion or excitement for? While I believe it’s true that we’re not entitled to anything, life is far from fair, and I think that’s ultimately good - we do have self control, and can work to design things to our liking. Whether you’re fixing fence posts in the sun, or conducting rocket science to get Elon to Mars, your purpose and these eight other minimal characteristics should be practiced.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Do You Have a Good Job?

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