Job satisfaction cannot be sought in a formulated sequence. Job satisfaction is almost like magic; if you keep anticipating the magic, you will never be thrilled when the magician pulls a dove out of his old hat. Because you have already expected it, the magical moment puts you and the magician only in a dull swirl, like “Oh, yeah, I know, whatever” swirl.
So, how can we experience job satisfaction? By not expecting it from a particular person, in a particular place, at a particular time, and under specific situations.
The magician can be your supervisor, the organisation, your colleague, or even your partner. Partner? Some argue that you should set a rigid boundary between your personal and professional life, I agree, but you cannot set a boundary for emotional spillover, it is natural for your emotions to spillover from one domain to another domain. We cannot undo it, that’s how we are wired. So, by that theory, your partner can fit in the role of a magician. You must have watched one of the iconic romantic moments of the 2024 Olympics. Immediately after realising that she had won Gold, the Long runner Tara Davis-Woodhall rushed to her partner, Paralympian Hunter Woodhall, who gathered her in his arms, shouting, “You’re the Olympic champion, baby!” So, an unrelated external entity (e.g., your partner, sibling, your kids, or your pet) can be a magician for you to experience that magic-job satisfaction at the workplace. I know a colleague who had bought a pet because her work was monotonously exhausting. I hope she smiles more often in the workplace. See?
The magic need not happen at the workplace on a stage, it can happen at the kiosk, at the parking lot, or during a gossip. Go with the flow. When the magic strikes, it strikes gold.
A few critics might comment that magic is delusional, a coincidence, a facade; it is better to understand reality before entering a world of chaos.
I disagree.
Sometimes, you need delusion to help you coast through hardships. To understand how delusion and faith are blurred, you must read, “This Blinding Absence of Light.” It is a novel written by Moroccan writer, Tahar Ben Jelloun. A failed coup to expel King Hassan II, in Morocco, leads to the imprisonment of the involved people in a prison, famously known as Tazmamart, Morocco. Tazmamart, according to the varied documentaries, is an underground cramped cell: no presence of light (thus the name of the book, “This Blinding Absence of Light”), no human contact, and very minimal food rations for the prisoners to just survive if at all they had the power to survive. This book discusses the account of one such prisoner who survived. This person, along with a few others, has survived the prison for years! Like us, the writer became curious and therefore, probed the released prisoner to explain how he and a few others managed to survive. The witnesses and confessions of the released prisoner give us insight into how people may get by on their religious beliefs alone. The book talks about how these individuals were spiritually not even present in the tortured cell and their souls have travelled to Mecca during their physical stay in the cell. This account can be delusional for some rational humans and atheists. I am agnostic. So, I am unsure about the logic behind it. But the key lesson is not about the religious faith, it is all about how you develop a survival tactic with certain resources. Who cares, if it is delusional? If it helps you escape the treacherous conditions. Here, the survival tactic is brought out by an external entity (Belief on God), it can also be brought out by the internal entities (e.g., resilience and patience).
Next, humans vent because of their monotonous tasks. Including me. But we should understand that monotony provides the essential condition and the time frame for magic to work. If there is no monotony, you cannot really distinguish the spike of the magic from the ordinary life, isn’t it? Imagine a graph with only highs, no lows, and no inertia, how boring it will be? So, give monotony a little credit too, hate him less. “Him” is just a figure of speech here, just a generic personification, don’t picture your 45-year-old boss. Again, a 45-year-old is just a figure of speech. I am clueless about how to introduce a pun when I must be politically correct.
Going forward, at times, magic becomes a reality when it happens over and over again but more importantly with punctuated monotony. The only responsibility you have is to acknowledge the magic. Will you take that responsibility?
I happened to find my job satisfaction at my lowest phase when I was shopping for groceries in a nearby supermarket outside my work campus a few months ago. And the magicians were… let them remain as magicians, why to kill the magic?
Disclaimer: All Opinions on the post are personal.
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