What causes a career crisis?

The Gallup Organization reports that happy employees show high levels of work satisfaction when they:
- Are cared for as individuals
- Are treated with fairness, dignity and respect
- Are free of coercion or harassment
- Are able to give opinions or have a say in company matters
- Have a best friend at work
- Are often praised for their efforts
- Are given honest feedback and direction
- Know what is expected of them
- Can see and understand the company’s vision and purpose
- Have a sense of higher purpose, of greater good
- Feel they are fairly rewarded for their achievements
- Can apply existing skills, improve others and add new ones
- Are challenged to provide higher quality work

Some of the points above can be very debatable: Can there ever be fairness in the cut-throat business world? What products or services contribute to society? Can everybody be happy when there are deadlines to meet, budgets to achieve and costs to cut?

There is no such a thing as a perfect work place simply because the work place is populated with imperfect people just like all of us. It is been even said that, if you are in a people management role, you will only click with ¼ of your staff; the other 3 people either hate you, ignore you or just follow out of obligation. A survey once even said that 90% of all employees reported feeling underpaid for their work. Go figure….

Having interviewed thousands of professionals in my career as an executive recruiter and trainer, I believe the lack of a clear challenges and rewards, direction and higher purpose tend to be the most common causes for us to question our work mission in life...usually when the sun sets on Sunday and we need to have to work the next day.

Let’s discuss the meaning of work and how it fits in the bigger picture of life in my next installments.