Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Ramen Noodle Weekends Lead to Happiness

Color me only a little surprised to read the ten happiest jobs involve playing hopscotch with the poverty line.

Forbes contributor, Steve Denning, wrote that these content individuals reported being the most satisfied with their jobs above all others, as surveyed by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago.

This man is happy.
People of the clergy, firefighters, authors (all of them, not just the J.K. Rowlings of the world), special education teachers, teachers, artists, operating engineers and others say they have the best jobs. Admittedly, I cherry-picked these because they are on the lower end of the pay-scale.

The other three, physical therapists, psychologists, and financial services sales agents, see benefit both on their paycheck and in the faces of those to whom they cater.

Curious, the similarities in the top ten happiest jobs, no?

Look at this in comparison to the ten worst jobs. Director of information technology, director of sales and marketing, product manager, senior web developer, technical specialist, electronics technician, law clerk, technical support analyst, CNC Machinist, and marketing manager -- call me crazy, but these jobs sound like high-paying, high-competition positions.

They're the kind of jobs that have an important image, that play a key role in the way a business, non-profit, or government entity works. Hmmm

Did you see what is right at the top of the ten happiest jobs? It's much like the reports that only .02% of NFP-practicing married couples get a divorce... If you really put faith in numbers and quantitative evidence... follow the yellow brick road (Please refer to this post, if you are a single man and this wonderful lady if you are a single woman).

2 comments:

Jessica said...

What I find interesting about the article--and maybe this is because it's in Forbes magazine--is that the author seems to believe that more money = more happiness, despite writing an article to the contrary. For example, he writes that 65% of financial services sales agents are happy, and says maybe it's because they're making $90,000 a year. He also says that special education teachers "don't care about money" because they're making just under $50,000 a year, which I think is a pretty decent salary. I find his approach to writing the article very odd, but the findings aren't strange at all.

Anthony S. Layne said...

"... [T]he author seems to believe that more money = more happiness, despite writing an article to the contrary."

Possibly, although Steve Denning goes on to quote Todd May in the NYT about perception of a job as being worthwhile. I think they've actually got something of "the best of both worlds": they're directly helping people, with results that are pretty tangible, AND they get well compensated to do it.

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