Jill Goldson: 7 secrets of people who love their work

Being able to work freely and flexibly are key to loving your job. Photo / 123RF

Do you live to work or work to live? Are you one of 40 per cent who feel no joy at the day ahead as you brush your teeth and check for your keys - or do you leave home with a spring in your step, - or does it vary from day to day?

4 out of 10 employees are not engaged at work according to TINYpulse, a company providing weekly employee surveys to over 40,000 people at 300 companies located across the globe. They asked one simple open-ended question in a recent large survey: "What do you love about your job?" No surprises that the standout reason for enjoying a job was the co-workers. Says David Niu, CEO and founder of TINYpulse, "The quality of your team can play a big role in employee happiness".

Great people attract great people

"Your brain is tied to your heart," says Barbara Frederickson, Professor of Psychology, North Carolina. The vagus nerve is the "friendly" nerve which helps regulate heartbeat and breathing and is shown to have its tone strengthened like a muscle, by human connectedness. This is backed up by research in New Zealand - Christchurch psychologist, Andy Martens and his team have demonstrated how hearing good feedback and enjoying positive relationships actually strengthen the tone of the vagus nerve.
So whilst those perks you hear about in the job description can sound amazing -finding compatibility and humour amongst your colleagues will far outweigh the satisfaction derived from the company car or phone - and support good health and well being too.

What are the other 7 significant secrets from those who love their work?

Freedom: This is needed to create, improvise and to be entrepreneurial - as well as to manage failure says David de Salvo, Forbes science writer. In his article about why people love what they do he confirms the requirement of happy workers to have freedom to ride the waves of both success and failure.

Culture: Many people think of work culture in terms of free snacks and generous Christmas parties - "however, it is the delivery of the fundamental values of transparency, trust and communication which gets the tick from those who love their work," says Nui of his survey findings.

Variety: It is in our nature to learn and to seek variety. Learning new skills allows more opportunities - and variety provides the stimulus forcing new learning. Apparently even amoebas become inert with "boredom" when subjected to repeated stimuli with no new learning.

Challenge: Those who love their work say they never lose sight of this. They show passionate tenacity - even if the means of doing so is outside the square. Famous Nobel Prize winners scientists Watson and Crick documented their exhaustive and painstaking search for understanding the structure of DNA - and the exultation of the final resounding success.

Lack of petty competitiveness: Competition and in-fighting does not rate as an issue with those who love their job. Their vision of the bigger picture is not blurred by the wrangles and superficial jealousies of the workplace.

Flexibility: Those who are excited by their work live and breathe the fact that others will take over the role they are in - and they inspire passion into their successors. They also tend to be very flexible about coming and going in different organisations- they will follow their passion and potential where it is best realised.

Childhood: In touch with the little kid they were - the adult who loves their work is still the same child who wrote stories, or the one who sold toys to their friends or made fantastic constructions out of Lego or play dough. Their career passions are connected to the things they loved to do as children. They now live with seasoned adult perspective and the energy of a child -a happy combination.

As the late Steve Jobs said, "The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, don't settle."