Introduction
The modern world is filled with competitive players in the job market. In this regard, people decide to fight for positions and jobs that are not interesting to earn money for themselves and their families. However, many young employees still want to find comfortable jobs that meet their skill development needs. When considering the problem of job satisfaction, several aspects can be distinguished: the social part (corporate ethics and relationships with colleagues), training, a convenient schedule, and the level of wages.
Social and Communicative Aspect: Corporate Ethics and Relationships with Colleagues
A person’s need for communication, peace of mind, and self-confidence is very much related to the psychological aspects of the personality. Specialists developed inevitable approaches to address this aspect of job satisfaction. As Appiah (2019) notes, “the global approach perceives job satisfaction to include employees’ feelings toward a job” (p. 143). If a person is delighted psychologically at work, they are likely to be patient with other aspects (such as wages).
Psychological job satisfaction makes a person very hardworking and even willing to make sacrifices to help their colleagues, boss, and company. For example, various companies (for example, Microsoft, Tide) use the “my company” method in their team-building exercises. The core of this method is that the employee says or reads something about the company, replacing the phrase ‘our company’ with ‘my company’ (Appiah, 2019, p. 141). It increases positive responsibility and awareness in the workplace. A person very clearly then understands their obligation to colleagues and superiors. The accents are moved in such a way that a person feels not ‘responsibility to,’ but ‘responsibility for.’
Many people (even unconsciously) would like to work in a place charged with ideas. Most people have a dream to find their mission, their recognition. All people want to be proud of their work, to talk about it with pleasure to their friends. However, not all people can admit this, fearing, perhaps, the adverse reaction from their superiors or friends. Without forgetting about the psychological aspects, one can talk about the material. People can get job satisfaction in various ways, but one of the keys is mission awareness, which hides in corporate ethics narratives.
Good communication with colleagues is an essential aspect of job satisfaction. It gives the person emotional comfort and the ability not to keep track of time while completing work assignments. This aspect is crucial for a new employee waiting for support, care, advice, and explanation. An employee who has been working for many years in the same position and one area will not care how colleagues are treated behind their backs. An experienced employee can tolerate and ignore gossip, ignorance (within reasonable limits) because they do not need approval and support.
However, when choosing a place of work, people tend to select a vacancy or company from a team. Someone needs to get into a female or male team, while it is vital to work with peers. Working with people who are much older or younger can be a lot of embarrassment and discomfort. Sometimes, young people cannot work in high-paying positions in offices because they have no one to talk to there. They see their colleagues as strangers because they are much older. The problems of these senior colleagues seem foreign and incomprehensible to them. Then such young professionals return to stores as consultants to spend time in a comfortable environment but earn less money.
Job satisfaction through communication and friendship with colleagues is widespread among young people for whom it is essential to feel connected with others. Sometimes people try to find vacancies to avoid contact with people much younger or older. Friendship with colleagues gives self-confidence, which increases job satisfaction. Under such conditions, a person may have low earnings, but they will be happy to come to work, knowing that kind, sympathetic and understanding colleagues are waiting for them.
The Training Factor Before Starting Work or at the Time of Starting Work
Nowadays, some professions require specific training that is not present in high school or university. This fact also makes life and employment difficult for people with low qualifications. In a summary of their book, Baird et al. (2019) mention that, “Moreover, unskilled workers face a shrinking pool of employment opportunities. Wage and opportunity gaps are widening between those who have in-demand skills and those who do not” (xi). Despite potential, youth, and energy, the employer will refuse such a person because he does not consider him worthy. Perhaps these employers do not want to have problems with training young employees. Staff training intersects with the topic of good relations with colleagues raised above. It can be explained by the fact that it is on the shoulders of colleagues (in most cases) that the burden of training the young and new employee falls. It is also associated with a specific dependence on their colleagues of young employees who can complete the training and begin work assignments.
However, training will ultimately only have a positive effect on job satisfaction. The young employee will take a responsible approach, ask his colleagues exciting questions, and be consciously involved in the work process. The training effort is worth it to increase job satisfaction for young employees. According to Baird et al. (2019), “job training program to be a good return on investment in terms of benefits outweighing costs, both for the individual and for the government—and, ultimately, for society” (p. 127). The same applies to older but unskilled employees. Even if the employer cannot invite such an employee to a high-paying position, they will learn to get job satisfaction because they will know every detail.
Initially receiving a lot of care and attention from their employers and colleagues, the young employee will later be grateful. They will also try to take care of them, carrying out various assignments unrelated to their direct activities and profession. Moreover, in general, this fosters a responsible attitude towards new employees in the company. Over time, a high-quality training system will develop and then put on the conveyor.
It will be easier for employees to get job satisfaction if their training is approached responsibly and competently by bosses and colleagues. It will allow him to feel responsibility, gratitude towards colleagues, and involvement in the work process. Job satisfaction will come from relatively high qualifications and an understanding of the details of the job. The person will feel that they have been taken care of to start working without any problems.
Schedule and Wages
Schedule and pay requirements are standard and no longer surprise any employer or recruiter. Almost all people have specific requirements for this, but these requirements become central when it is clear that a person gets job satisfaction by receiving a wage. Today’s companies find it unattractive to hire young and inexperienced professionals whose motivation is inherent in the schedule and money. Such workers are considered lazy and not ready to sacrifice their energy for the good of the company and colleagues.
However, there is a large stratum of people who do not have high qualifications and do not care about other issues, except for matters of payment and schedule. For such people, the priority is family, children, relatives, home, or their hobbies. They want them to have enough time for themselves and their relatives. Work for them is a livelihood, not a place to develop their skills, meet interesting people and learn new information.
A rather large segment of the population receives pleasure from work through wages and a convenient schedule. These include family people, low-skilled workers, people with hobbies, which for them at the moment are in the first place in the priorities. Do not devalue the value of wages and schedules for other people in their job satisfaction. Although each person sets their accents for themselves, the total absence of an advantage in at least one of the factors described can already negatively affect the pleasure of work.
Conclusion
In three groups, five dimensions were considered that can influence job satisfaction for employees. These aspects were corporate ethics, friendships with colleagues, training, schedule, and salary. The least popular among young workers is job satisfaction for programs and wages. Young people tend to communicate and spend time with peers, prioritizing having developed corporate ethics. People appreciate feeling like they are part of something big and essential. Also, friendly communication with colleagues plays an important role, allowing people to feel safe and calm, increasing job satisfaction. Research shows that investing in training for unskilled employees can help them find job satisfaction and boost their earnings. These workers are grateful to their colleagues, understand the details of the job, and can enjoy a job they realize.
References
Appiah, J. K. (2019). Community-based corporate social responsibility activities and employee job satisfaction in the US hotel industry: An explanatory study. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 38, 140-148.
Baird, Matthew D., John Engberg, Gabriella C. Gonzalez, Thomas Goughnour, Italo A. Gutierrez, & Rita T. Karam. (2019). Effectiveness of screened, demand-driven job training programs for disadvantaged workers: An evaluation of the New Orleans career pathway training. RAND Corporation.