A recent study showed that 85 percent of Americans were unhappy with their job. I can’t tell you the facts about that study or where I read this little bit of news. It could have been the National Enquirer, but since I do not read the National Enquirer it probably was some other unreliable news source.

This news sparked an interesting conversation one noon hour over lunch. It appeared the people sitting around my table would rather be working other jobs, too. What makes a person unhappy with their employment?

We tossed that idea around for a little while. It appeared that employers, supervisors or managers were a big part of job dissatisfaction. It could be that people have a hard time having someone tell them what to do, but that did not appear to be the case. It appeared that moodiness of employers or supervisors was one of the problems. It was the way employees were being asked to perform a task. It was the tone of voice and the demeaning way the employers approached their employees. It made the workplace volatile.

Another part of job crabbiness was co-workers. Many different personalities make for many different environments in a work place. The conversation then turned to whether it was easier working with men or women. Since the conversation participants were all women it was surprising that the opinions were mixed.

Gratitude and feeling appreciated by their employers was high on the list of job satisfaction with this lunch group. If these people felt appreciated by their employer even if the job they were performing was not one they liked, they felt more loyalty to their employer.

The group felt another part of job dissatisfaction were frustrated customers. Have you ever been a frustrated customer? I have. I get the most frustrated with my peaceful evening being interrupted by telemarketers. Can you imagine how the telemarketers must feel when we hang up on them or are rude? They too are only doing their jobs. They too are trying to put food on the table for their family. How many telemarketers have you heard rave about the love of their job? Perhaps it was the only job available to them.

However, not one person at the table was working in a career that they loved. So perhaps job satisfaction has more to do with finding something you like to do and then get paid for it. I have been listening to too many talk shows and reading too many self help magazines. Their advice is: Find what you like to do and then get paid for it. The group agreed that would be ideal; however, most people feel they just have to be able to pay their bills and their dreams have died.

How do we do find our dream job? If I had the answer I would be writing full time and earning enough to pay my bills. I met a lady recently that started her own business. She works very hard, but she told me her job did not feel like work because she was doing what she loved. It is possible.

I could turn this into a funny story, but I feel this is serious business. This table of women shared that their lives would be so different if they could work at a career they loved. These women felt they would be better wives, mothers and better people if they could work in their dream job. However, they also felt that their lives would improve if they felt appreciated by their employer and could look forward to their workday.

Why do we work where we work? Did we choose our jobs or did they choose us? Are we working at a career just for the paycheck and we do not energetically do our best at job performance? Do we take pride in what we do even if we have a job other people do not consider important in our society? Do we think we do not have the choices to find a job where we would be happy? Have we settled? Do we feel so locked in that we have to tolerate disrespect of employers or even co-workers or customers?

I do not have the answers for anyone but myself. The world would be a better place if people were happy with their jobs. If you are an employer maybe it could start with you. If you are an employee maybe it could start with you. Perhaps we have our dream job, and we do not recognize it because we are so busy looking to find what we think is our dream job. Remember the theory that the grass is always greener on the other side. Did you see those weeds?

It seems so easy when we listen to the talk shows. Find what you like to do and do it. We know it is not that easy but perhaps we have never tried because the conversation in our head tells us that it is not possible. Perhaps it is. I met one person that made it happen. Perhaps we have to change the conversation in our head. Perhaps we have to ask for help.

In the meantime we will continue our jobs and continue listening to the news that tells us how unhappy Americans are in the workplace and we will believe it. But remember:

“Pink isn’t just a color it’s an attitude.” — Unknown

Or do we mean green as in greener, but don’t forget the weeds.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at

thecolumn@bevcomm.net.