The last time you met your friend, she was super excited to join her new company. She received 4 job offers- all with exciting companies and great roles and she chose to join this one because it offered the best compensation.
Now you are meeting her after 4 months and you notice that she is a bit down. Just as you ask her if something is wrong & she begins to pour out her woes about her new workplace. The job hasn’t panned out the way she hoped. The team is very political and its hard to fit in. The work she has been assigned is mundane & a far cry from what she thought she was going to get. On top of it, neither her manager nor other leaders tell them anything about what’s going on and she feels very disconnected.
Sound familiar?
Haven’t we or someone close to us often found ourselves in this predicament where we thought we were making the best job & company choice only to discover that we hadn’t thought through what we really want when we took up a new job. Money seemed to be the best differentiator, only to end up being a poor predictor of quality of our work life.
It’s hard to do, but it’s worth looking back at your work life and listing when you felt the most invigorated at work? Think about a day or week when
- You felt valued and cared for at work
- Your opinions mattered
- You learnt something almost everyday
- The company’s vision resonated with your own value system
- You were recognized for what you brought to the table
- You were given more opportunities to learn and to grow
My guess is that a few of these or all of these were moments and phases in your job that gave you immense satisfaction.
This might sound cheesy, but no money can equal that huge feeling of accomplishment. We have income goals, nobody wants to work for free. But we also want to be happy at work and that rarely, if ever, depends absolutely on how much we take home. It’s more about how we feel or are made to feel at work.
Every person’s view of what makes a workplace great is different. And compensation is almost never in the top 3 reasons why we choose to stay & thrive in a company. So why do we make it the top reason to join a company?
It’s time to take back your choice. Discover what really makes a place a great place to work for you.
