Career Wellbeing

Continuing highlights from the book Wellbeing by Gallup researchers Tom Rath and Jim Harter:

• Only 20% of people like what they do each day.
• Career Wellbeing is the most essential of the five elements.
• People with high Career Wellbeing are more than twice as likely to be thriving in their lives overall.
• Long-term unemployment
  • Unemployment might be the only major life event from which people do not fully recover within five years.
  • Our wellbeing actually recovers more rapidly from the death of a spouse than it does from a sustained period of unemployment.
• Being disengaged at work appears to be a leading indicator of a subsequent clinical diagnosis of depression.
• On bosses…
  • If your manager ignores you, there is a 40% chance that you will be actively disengaged or filled with hostility about your job.
  • If your manager is primarily focused on your strengths, the chance of your being actively disengaged is 1%.
  • People looking for a job should be as concerned about who their manager will be as they are about their job title, benefits or pay.
• Career Wellbeing in one of the major differentiators that helps us live into our 90s
  • Of the men who live to see 95, the average retirement age was 80
  • 93% of these folks reported a great deal of satisfaction out of the work they did
• People who have the opportunity to use their strengths are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life.

The Essentials of Career Wellbeing

People with high Career Wellbeing wake up every morning with something to look forward to doing that day.  Whether they are working in a home, a classroom, or a cubicle, they have the opportunity to use their strengths each day and to make progress.  Those with thriving Career Wellbeing have a deep purpose in life and a plan to attain their goals.  In most cases, they have a leader or manager who makes them enthusiastic about the future and friends who share their passion.

While you might think that people with a high Career Wellbeing spend too much time working, they actually take more time to enjoy life, have better relationships, and don’t take things for granted.  And they love what they do each day.

 Three Recommendations for Boosting Career Wellbeing:

1.  Every day, use your strengths.
2. Identify someone with a shared mission who encourages your growth.  Spend more time with this person.
3. Opt into more social time with the people and teams you enjoy being around at work.