As I've said before, thank goodness that I took the advice of the Professors that I have this semester and picked topics for the papers that I'm writing that are interesting to me. I can't imagine having to go through 10-20 articles, books, websites, etc. to find worthwhile information on a topic that I had no interest in whatsoever.
Since I've been in the restaurant industry for the last few years, and since I saw Dr. Weyant's paper hanging in front of the MBA offices while I was waiting for a meeting one day (yes...cheesy, brown-nosing opportunities exist in blog form, too), I decided that job satisfaction in the restaurant industry would be an interesting topic to address. If nothing else, I feel like it's something that needs to be addressed since turnover can be as high as 75-100% depending on the restaurant sector that you're researching.
I took Dr. Weyant's advice and looked for references that are commonly 'referenced' in the scholarly journal articles that I came across and stumbled upon an awesome book on the topic by Paul Spector called "Job Satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences."
Mr. Spector states that "Job satisfaction is the degree to which people like their jobs. Some people enjoy work and find it to be a central part of life. Others hate to work and do so only because they must." That statement alone took me a few hours to digest as I thought back across my 'working life' about myself and all the other people I've worked with and what category we would fall into. What category do you all think you fall into with your jobs? Are you here in this program because you don't feel like you have enough satisfaction in your past jobs, or even your current job?
I've always prided myself on being a person that not only enjoys their job, but tries to work as hard as I can each day that I'm there. I used to tell people at my last job that work is at least 80% verb and 20% a noun. I guess that's just because I was lucky enough to enjoy what I did, even though I may have complained about it a bit more than I probably should have from time to time.
I fall into the category of I really enjoy my job. I often find myself wondering though, what if I didn't do what I currently do? I've taken some steps in my career that have put me in the right places at the right times. I've taken jobs that "on paper" would make people think, what the heck was he thinking? I once took a job in NY working for a contract lab for a $12,000 pay cut! My Dad thought I was out of my mind. I probably almost gave him a coronary when I told him about it. Regardless, it turned out to be a terrible and completely unfulfilling job (mostly due to an awful manager, which is the reason I'm writing my paper on toxic management) but it allowed me to work on and learn how to troubleshoot a lot of different instruments. I wouldn't have got that experience at any of my other jobs, and I honestly wouldn't be where I am today had I not taken it. I just goes to show you that you never know what's going to happen and everything can be a positive learning experience depending on how you look at it.
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