The 4 Factors that Affect Job Happiness

The average tenure at an employer today is 4.2 years. Over my professional 20+ year career in business, I’ve found that 4 factors ultimately affect your happiness at an employer. These 4 factors include the job function you do, the relationship with your boss, the company you work for, and your total compensation.

Most people do not find themselves happy in all four of these areas when self-reflecting about their current employer. I’ve even found that sometimes, a person only has to hit a homerun in one of these four categories to be happy at their new job they land or their existing role.

However, maximizing all four of these factors before getting hired can dramatically increase your happiness at your new job and lengthen the time working for that employer.

Here are some key insights about how to leverage these 4 Factors to maximize happiness and career longevity:

The Company You Work For…

Whether the company you choose to work for is a Fortune 500 business, local small business, remote startup, or non-profit organization - the specific product, service, or brand can be a fulfilling aspect of your career.

Some people grow up having a dream to work for Apple, build robots, or help lift up people from poverty in a developing country. If the company is very important to you, focus on finding a product, service, brand, or company culture that is a 100% fit with what you’re looking for. Aligning the company you work for with your passion and values will help you win in this category.

The Job function You Perform Daily…

When it comes to job function and seeking new opportunities, I highly recommend focusing on the areas that you are the strongest in. Meaning that if the job description requires 80% of your time doing email marketing (written content) as a marketing director and your background is graphic design (visual content) - skip that opportunity.

I believe Steve Jobs once said don’t apply for a job that you’re more than 80% qualified for. The idea being that there needs to be room for growth built into the new job you pursue. If climbing the companies leadership ladder is important to you, this rule of thumb makes even more sense.

Either way, there is a healthy balance to pursue with new roles. Focus on opportunities that have extreme synergy with your biggest strengths that you offer. Whether you’re in business, an engineer, or a teacher - think of your personal brand as a value proposition.

Think about what people going to pay you the most for simply because you hit homeruns at it regularly already, know that industry inside and out, or you can do the work of 3 people because you know that job tasks/function like the back of your hand.

Then apply this newly identified personal value propositions to the job descriptions you’re reviewing, and focus on the 100% matches.

I find that most people in their career either fall in the category of young professional, seasoned leader, or considering a career pivot. If you’d like to discuss your career with me you can book a free 30-minute session on my calendar here.

The Relationship You Have with Your boss…

I sometimes say that having a great relationship with your boss is half the battle, but that’s not always true with everyone. This can be hard to identify from a few interviews with the hiring manager, asking your professional network, or reviewing the company reviews on Glassdoor.

However, you can mitigate this a bit in the hiring process with adding a few targeted questions like 1) why are you hiring for this role?, 2) how long did the last person stay in this position?, 3) what are some of the key expectations for this position for the next 12 months?, 4) How will I be evaluated for raises and promotion?

These types of questions will help you flush out potential red flags of working for this boss. However, a few other signs that its a stable company, culture, or team environment is paying attention to how much they invest in their employees. Much of the time this will help you find a stable and healthy company culture.

You can get an idea of this by the quality of their benefits program (insurance, retirement, education repayment, etc.), whether or not they have an initial training period/program (depending on the role), the number of vacation and sick days, company holidays, and if they have a history of paying 100% of bonuses offered.

Some of these questions reflect on the company, but it’s going to affect your relationship with your boss - trust me.

Your total compensation…

Obviously, total compensation is a big one. However, it’s not everyone’s #1 decision maker. If you focus on aligning your biggest strengths with the job description and daily demands of each job function, you should be able to ask for the high-end of the pay scale in the job listing.

In some cases companies will potentially increase the top-line pay 10%+ depending on their initial offer to you and your counter offer. It’s usually assumed that their will be one counter offer by the employee. How you leverage your personal value proposition in the interviewing process is going to help you when negotiating compensation.

Also, it’s important to know the value of the benefits they’re offering. In some cases, the benefits package could be soo attractive in terms of healthcare coverage, 401k matching, pension plan, stock options, bonuses, student loan pay back, and/or vacation time that you might want to even consider a very low offer (in some cases).

Overall, if you can hit a homerun with the company, job, boss, and compensation - you should theoretically be on an amazing path to career happiness and longevity. The reality is that striking it big in one or two of these categories could make a person very happy for decades.

Before you decide on what opportunities to apply for, take a moment to decide how much you care about each of these four categories, and what your personal value proposition looks like in detail. Good luck!