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What Makes Us Feel Good About Work?

When I went to college, I studied Sociology because I wanted to save the world! At least that’s what I thought at the time. In reality, I believe I chose it because I found it interesting at the time, but the motivation goes deeper than that. My father always told me that if I found a job that I loved, I’d never work a day in my life. That platitude stuck with me and I’ve been engaged in work that I find rewarding ever since. My goal in life is not to be rich and famous or to drive a Tesla (although that might be nice). My goal instead is to be happy and do work that positively impacts the people and community around me. This is why I’ve gravitated to social services and nonprofit all of my life. Over the years I have done the following kinds of work:

  • Training volunteers to advocate for children in foster care
  • Supporting child care professionals to comply with state regulations
  • Tax preparation for low-income populations
  • Short-term crisis counseling

As you can see, the work I’ve engaged in has been varied, but I could always go home at night knowing that I helped someone improve their lives in some way. This work is also complex and nuanced adding to the effort required to successfully complete it. This brings me to Dan Airely’s talk about motivation at work. I hadn’t reflected on it before, but part of the reason that I’ve been motivated by my work is because of its complexity and the effort required to complete it. Airely calls this idea the IKEA effect inspired by the complexity associated with assembling IKEA furniture (TED, 2009). The work that I do not only challenges me, but also has a social redeeming value. 

Image From: https://www.perdoo.com/resources/intrinsic-motivation/

According to Whetten and Cameron (2016) Millennials, a generation that I belong to, are more motivated by work that serves the common good. It seems that I've leaned deeply into this facet of my generation. It is my belief based on this understanding of my own intrinsic motivation and what I've learned from Airely & Pink's TED Talks on motivation that motivation should primarily come from the employees and their values (TED, 2013 & TED 2009). Having worked in nonprofit organizations, financial compensations was never a primary motivator for work for myself or many of my colleagues. The best run organizations know how to recruit, hire, and retain staff that have values that align with the values of the organization. 



References

TED. (2009, August 25). The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink [Video.]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/rrkrvAUbU9Y  

TED. (2013, April 10). What makes us feel good about our work? | Dan Ariely [Video.]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5aH2Ppjpcho 

Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Pearson. 

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