3 Steps to Enhance Your Job Satisfaction
How satisfied are you in your current job? A 2018 survey by The Conference Board discovered that only 51% of U.S. employees felt satisfied with their job. Another survey, by Pew Research, found only one-third of the respondents said their jobs gave meaning to their life. The more important question to answer is this: How can you improve your overall job satisfaction?
Working in a vocation that fits your skills, abilities, education, and experience is certainly important. Salary, benefits, and how valued you feel are obviously factors. But the most important way to enjoy rich satisfaction in your job is to embrace God’s perspective on work.
“What? God cares about my job?” Yes, he does. He cares a great deal about every aspect of your life, especially the place where you spend the majority of your waking hours. Being satisfied in your work is his desire. Enhancing your job satisfaction requires a fresh, new outlook – God’s outlook. Here are three powerful principles from the Bible that are guaranteed to enhance your job satisfaction.
1. Serve your manager with full obedience. Do everything they tell you to unless of course, it’s illegal or immoral, and do it well. God expects you to serve your employer whole heartily showing them absolute respect. That’s right, absolute respect. “What if they don’t deserve respect?” “What if my boss is unfair and mean?” Obey them anyway. 1 Peter 2:19 reads: “For God is pleased with you when you know what is right and patiently endure unfair treatment.” That’s a really tough command to obey. But it’s exactly how Jesus lived his life and it’s the only way to experience the abundant life he promised. Your heavenly Father wants you to honor your manager even when they are stingy, unfair, or mean. In this way, you will experience an entirely new level of job satisfaction by respecting and honoring your employer.
2. Let God’s character be on HD display in your work. That means you strive to do all of your work with excellence. The Bible instructs you to work with emotional enthusiasm being willing to do whatever is asked of you, and with a positive attitude. Will your boss change? Will a promotion come? The impact of your actions may be uncertain, but what is sure is that God will be pleased with your attitude. He supports those who are humble, not prideful. He doesn’t want you to be a people pleaser who only works hard when others are watching. He’s always watching and how you do your work, all day and every day, is very important to him. Give it your best all the time. That means that you don’t talk back or talk about your manager, or anyone else in authority. Trustworthy and dependable is how you want coworkers to describe you. But working hard is hard work. To consistently please your employer, you must keep reminding yourself of who you really work for.
3. Realize that you are really working for the Lord. God gives this principle multiple times in the Bible. “You are serving the Lord” is his reminder to the bondservants of the first century. Working with a sincere heart comes from embracing the reality that you report to Jesus. When you are tempted to slack off because your boss doesn’t deserve your best, remember your true boss always deserves your best. “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” Ephesians 6:7. Envision Jesus grinning from ear to ear as he sees your faithful service. Hear him tell you, “Well done faithful servant.” Realize that this same passage promises: “the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are employees or employers.”
Instead of serving yourself and focusing on your wants and desires, change your attitude. Enjoy the deep satisfaction of serving God by giving your absolute best at work every day and all day, for his sake. You will enhance your job satisfaction by asking him to strengthen you with the perseverance and patience he longs to give you.
Bill has authored two books, How to Ask God and Take 10 to Meno, and hosts the podcast, Drive Time Devotionals. His clear, practical teaching stems from degrees in engineering and theology,16 years of marketplace experience, and 23 years of vocational ministry, including church planting in Senegal, West Africa, and pastoring two churches in the Carolinas. Bill and his wife, Tammy, reside in Wilmington, NC. To find additional resources visit www.BillSimpson.org.
