my job doesn’t make me happy — and it’s totally fine!!

The often asked question is if people are happy at their jobs. Often, happiness is used here as a proxy for job satisfaction, which is multi-faceted and unique as each individual.

So when someone asks if your job makes you happy, or if you’re happy at your job, a lot of people who enjoy their work and teammates, say yes! Me being me, of course I candidly share that my job doesn’t make me happy. And I’m not sure that there will be ever be a job that does.

I don’t derive happiness from what I do. I don’t dislike what I do either. The work that I do and the problems and challenges that I face at work are often interesting, engaging, and stimulating. The reason I wouldn’t say I’m happy with this, is because I reserve happiness for describing things like cake on my friends birthdays, being able to buy practical gifts for friends, and playing with animals.

I think it’s a bit problematic that we’re such a work centric world that people ask if jobs make us happy. A job is not a baby, a dog or cat, your mom’s birthday, your best friend’s graduation. It simply doesn’t compare, and we shouldn’t compare those things.