(UPDATE) There’s been a bit of an uproar over a recent Australian study that found working a crummy job is worse for your mental health than not working at all.
Study participants who transitioned from being unemployed to being employed in a poor-quality job showed a worsening of their mental health, the researchers, from The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, say.
Maybe it’s me, but didn’t we already know this? A bad job makes people unhappy. A good job makes people happy. If you leave a bad job and spend some time unemployed, the one saving grace is that you’re not at the bad job, and that can make some of us happier. That seems to be what the researchers found, but I’m basing this on media reports.
The study, and the way the press has been covering the research, got me thinking about whether we’ve all just become a bunch of whiners. I’ve been spending some time with a sanitation worker lately for a story I’m writing about government workers, and this guy’s job is pretty disgusting and difficult, but he wasn’t complaining.
“I have to work,” he said. “A man don’t work he don’t eat.”
This wasn’t his dream job. In fact, he laughed out loud when I asked him if he had a dream job in mind. “I’m 44 years old,” he said. “I stopped dreaming about jobs. I work to live and support myself and my family.”
Is he happy? I’m not a psychologist, but he seemed content to me. But let’s say his job was impacting his mental health, then what? People often do jobs they hate, or don’t quite love, for a paycheck. I’m not saying you shouldn’t find a job you love, but all this focus on work happiness is making me unhappy.
There are endless books written about the topic, and endless experts telling you how to make your life better and happier. Alas, the reality is many of us don’t love what we do but still have to do it no matter how it impacts our happiness quotient.
Sorry happiness gurus.
(UPDATE) As for the mental health study, I just heard back from one of the authors, Peter Butterworth with the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University, and he stressed that “We’re not advocating that people shouldn’t work.”
And, he continued,
“From a mental health perspective, there is an enormous amount of evidence showing the benefits that flow from being employed vs unemployed.”
But, he added,
“There is also another body of research that shows how the characteristics of work – including psychosocial factors – influence health. What we’ve done is to combine these 2 fields of research and found that the poorest quality work does not lead to any mental health benefits over unemployment. Certainly long term unemployment has a significant cost to a person’s mental health – but so to does employment in the poorest quality jobs. It’s likely to be the case that the benefits of being employed do not outweigh the costs associated with working in such a poor quality job.
There’s more work to be done looking at the effects over time. While we found no evidence of a positive effect across the period of time that we studied in this paper, the next step in our research is to better understand whether, compared to those who are unemployed, the mental health of those in the poorest quality jobs deteriorates over time or whether, despite the short-term adversity, poor quality jobs do actually provide a springboard to better outcomes for individuals.
The context is also important. In Australia, the availability of a universal social safety net is likely to moderate the most adverse consequences of unemployment. While there is criticism of the adequacy of income support payments, it may be that access to unemployment benefits and health care may help people to avoid the worst consequences of unemployment, such as extreme poverty.”
Clearly, long-term unemployed Americans are at greater risk for ending up in financial hell because we lack similar safeguards.
Have you done a job you hated for a paycheck, or for the learning experience? I have. I spent endless years, it seemed, writing for trade publications about everything from underwear to restaurant equipment. And I was also a greeter at CBS’ program analysis division. That job entailed me canvasing the streets of Manhattan to find tourists who’d be willing to view pilots for stupid sitcoms; and you better believe I spent many nights thinking my college education was worth crap.
I kept moving forward and eventually found work I loved, but I wonder now if I were drinking the well-being Kool-Aid back then if I ever would have been able to find career bliss, or should I say, career OK-ness.
March 22nd, 2011 at 10:11 am
What a timely piece. I was just mulling over this very concept this morning (after not landing one of those positions I thought I might love). When I was young, I told myself (and my friends) that I never wanted to end up working in an office, much less a cubicle. Yet, where have I spent many years of my career?
Do I have a dream job? I’ve had many over the years. I even thought my current job was my dream job when I took the position (and it well could have been, had not other circumstances intervened). Perhaps I’ve reached the point your sanitation worker is at: “I work to live and support myself and my family.” It’s wonderful if someone can land that dream job, but for most of us, dreams don’t pay the rent.
I believe people of my parents’ generation were much better at that contentment idea. Not all of them, to be sure, but most of them. They just wanted to do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, so they could live and support themselves and their families.
What happened? Perhaps it was the very affluence that accompanied those hard-working folks of earlier generations. They made it easier on us. I didn’t need to go to work with my father as soon as I could swing a hammer. We’ve been given the luxury of an extended childhood, ample opportunities for education, and teachers, parents, and others who tell us all to “dream big”.
We’re the victims of our own success!
I even find myself falling into that trap. As much as I try to prepare my kids for the real world, I find myself telling them to dream big, too. I just hope I’m also teaching them that we often don’t get to live our dreams, but that simply working and being productive is a good and honorable thing.
I had one particularly interesting work experience when I was a younger man. I was living on my own in a small city after moving to a different state and found getting a regular job to be quite difficult (I was, after all, an outsider). When I finally found work, it was doing odd construction, landscaping, and maintenance jobs–all things I’ve never been particularly good at or enjoyed. One of the assignments was to hang gutter. I had a terrible fear of heights, but also an even greater need for an income. The first half a day was utterly terrifying, but with each climb, I became a little more comfortable. Tall ladders and scaffolds still make me nervous to this day, but I’m no longer paralyzed by that fear. It was a job I hated, but needed desperately, so I made it work.
In life, I try to remember that I work so that my family and I can afford the things we enjoy: a house with a nice yard in which the children may play, warm meals, camping trips, hikes, and summer days fishing from a pier. Will I give up the idea of ever having a “dream job”? No! After all, there needs to be some “dream” left in life, but I try to temper my dreams with a healthy (but not crippling) dose of reality.
Perhaps some day, when my wife and I are done with the child-rearing years, we’ll each have other opportunities to focus on our dreams. If not, I guess I’ll be okay with seeing the gradkids from time to time!
March 22nd, 2011 at 1:48 pm
If we all chased after jobs that “made us happy” then there would be no one to clean the offices, pick up the garbage and serve us our fast food. No one should have to work at a job that makes them miserable or hurts their mental health, but there’s usually a way to find contentment in even the crappiest of work.
It doesn’t matter what the work entails, if you work with good, decent people, that will make a world of difference. If one is able to find camaraderie with their co-workers (even sharing a “we’re in this shit together” bond), then it’s possible to go home feeling much more content. If your job makes you happy, great. But I think most people would rather find happiness in their personal lives.
Sometimes a job is just a job. A means to end. Many say that money isn’t everything, but it sure is everything when you don’t have an income or a means to support yourself and your family.
March 22nd, 2011 at 8:13 pm
I have learned that there are jobs that will make me happier than others. After a brief bout of unemployment I accepted a job that made me miserable. Stress headaches, stress stomaches, the works. I lost weight and was generally just a crank. I’ve since found another job that’s a better fit with my interests. Do I bound out of bed every morning with a giant smile on my face? Nope. But I also can eat and sleep again and I don’t spend 40 minutes every night complaining about my day. It’s as good as it’s going to get and I’m OK with that. I think you have to scale jobs from 1-10 with 10 being deliriously happy (like being a taste tester at Ben & Jerry’s) and 1 being horribly depressed. If you can find something that lands on the scale between 5 & 10, you’re doing pretty good.
March 22nd, 2011 at 8:16 pm
And what’s wrong with living our dreams lives now. We may not love what we’re doing at the moment, but it pays the bills and lets us enjoy our families and our lives. I’m not saying we should strive for great career ambitions, but often the road to a higher job, or a higher purpose, doesn’t pay a lot. And some choose to do it because it contributes to the greater good of our families, communities, the world. Then we’re not happy because we aren’t living the life of stuff and prestige. What is happiness after all? Is it a great career, a big pay check… We need to ask ourselves these questions, right?
March 22nd, 2011 at 9:07 pm
For me, it took awhile to get “unstuck.” I knew I hated the job I was doing, but I had no idea how to transfer the skill set to something that would make me happier. Thank goodness for assessments and career counselors! I was so relieved when I learned that only 2 percent of lawyers shared my personality type and that I was naturally suited for teaching. It took awhile to find the right fit, but I’m glad that I was motivated to look for it. That being said, I wouldn’t have landed my teaching job without the years of experience doing something that wasn’t right for me.
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Worker Bee, I hear ya! I was working at a job I loved, but it ceased to exist, so I took the first job I could find and it made me absolutely miserable. I drove to work everyday with a knot in my stomache and a speech to myself about putting on my “big girl panties” and dealing with it. After 10 months, I gave up, quitting in the midst of the worst recession in years, but I decided it was either that or a nervous breakdown. I’m not a whiner, and I know I need a paycheck, but a job that saps your mental health, and then your physical health, is just not worth it. I finally found a job, not full time, lousy pay, but at least I don’t hate every minute of every day. And that is worth something!
March 26th, 2011 at 9:44 am
I think there’s something to be said for making the most out of the job we have. Yes, sometimes we end up in a place that is a terrible fit–and that can make us physically sick. But most people aren’t in that situation. Worker Bee says that a “10″ job might be tasting at Ben & Jerry’s. Actually, Worker Bee, that probably would be a great job for me! But what if you’re lactose intolerant? That job might be a “1″ for you.
My point being–we’re all wired differently and there are many jobs out there that would fit our happiness criteria, whatever it is. We have to look for those things in our current jobs too. Once great way to do that is to tie your personal products or services to the mission or goals of the entire organization. How are you contributing? Being connected to the end product can add to job satisfaction–even if it’s not your “dream” job.
Look and learn as much as you can right now, and once you’ve gained experience, you can look for other opportunities. Maybe within the company you’re currently working for! Eve’s questions above are right on–each of us have to define happiness for ourselves, and a big paycheck might not be part of it.