what is satisfying work?

It took me quite a few weeks to come up with the tag line for this blog, and for my nascent column: "Illuminating options for satisfying work." I tried a number of other ways to describe the sorts of career/business/workplace issues I want to tackle in my column, and in the niche I want to develop as a writer, but "satisfying work" is the only phrase so far that really covers all the aspects I'm after.

To me, satisfying work includes the following:

• It is something that contributes to the greater whole, however you define that.
• You are compensated well, or at least adequately, for it. If not, you feel the work is its own reward and it allows you to make arrangements to support yourself or your household.
• It fits you. This includes a philosophical, skills-based, practical fit, meaning the values expressed in the work match your own, it uses your strong skills (or develops new ones that you're seeking), and it fits with your practical needs as far as time and logistics are concerned.
• You have a creative investment in developing the job or the work situation. In other words, even if it fell in your lap, you can look at the factors leading up to the lucky moment and realize you played a part in that happening.

I'm hoping in future weeks to begin posting links to blogs, sites and references that illustrate my take and my journeys into the world of satisfying work. I enter this column-writing adventure as a writer, not a career counselor, but one who believes that the stories of people living their work lives in a satisfying way deserve notice.

keen words

Sam Keen is onto something...

"There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. We have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have a sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls." (emphasis mine)

(A tip o' the blog pen to Bob Baker's Artist Empowerment Blog for the quote: http://bob-baker.blogspot.com/)