M3 Category

The first job where I feel like I had good job satisfaction also happens to be the employer that I am currently working for, Frank’s Menswear. There are definitely several aspects to this job that I feel affect my job satisfaction and make it positive. For one, the management and owners of the business are local and try to make sure their employees are well taken care of and their needs are met. It’s mainly little things that achieve this, like having snacks and drinks always stocked in the back or talking to us and leaving me feeling like my feedback will actually have an instant impact. Also, they do some bigger things like having a very good attitude towards employees taking time off or staying home when sick, which is actually heavily encouraged or almost forced. All my other jobs were at large chains where there were a lot of hoops to jump through and forms to fill when you wanted some time off longer than a day or two. Overall, the job itself doesn’t get too monotonous and the people I work with make it worthwhile and give me good job satisfaction.

A job that definitely left with poor job satisfaction was working at Fred Meyer’s as an apparel clerk. Honestly, there’s little I can blame this on besides the description of the job itself. The people I worked with and for were mainly great, so the only part holding it back was the job duties and then a bit of issues due to the large chain store rules. I essentially went to work, and for eight hours until close I stacked shoes, which I mean it could have been worse because I really like shoes and I like things being clean so it worked out in those ways but after a couple of weeks it gets real old. The rest of the issues really just came from trying to get leave for a knee surgery. I kept trying to work it out with their corporate leave services, but just couldn’t seem to get it through so just ended up leaving the job. This actually ended up being a good thing because one knee surgery led to another and recovery took a long time, but that’s aside the point. Anyways, I had low job satisfaction at this job but it really came from the duties of the job which is hard to avoid from a business standpoint I suppose.

I was a bank teller for three years. During that time, it was a challenging, yet fulfilling workplace. The factors that made it satisfying to work at this local financial institution was the opportunity provided for employee engagement. The company also shared my values of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the community. Lastly, the close relationships that were fostered in the workplace has resulted in a stronger sense of workplace culture.

Expanding on my former company’s employee engagement, I really enjoyed that the company scheduled classes and regular training on financial policies. They made a point to train on other important areas such as CPR training at least once a year. The educational opportunities that were encouraged each of us to find our strengths. This meant there were certain training classes that other colleagues were excelling at, while I excelled at others. We all felt like we had a role to play. Another aspect included the company’s CSR. I enjoyed that my former workplace promoted volunteering, having one event per month to be involved with charities in the community or to donate from each paycheck an amount we chose. I am a part of the millennial generation, and I resonate with message about giving back on a personal level and want to be a part of a company that feels the same way. Lastly, I loved the friendships I made working with the group of colleagues. We would begin and end our week by sharing good work and non-work-related news. This gave us the ability to let other colleagues know what we were doing throughout the week and express our goals. My colleagues motivated me even when I didn’t want to go to work. I just didn’t want to let them down or add stress to my colleagues’ busy work week. Even now, I am still friends with my former colleagues.

As a supervisor, I would like to continue doing the things that motivated me as listed above. I would try to abate counter-productive behavior even before it starts. Sitting down with each person and their goals in the company so they can meet specific work and/or non-work-related goals at least every 60 to 90 days. I would be a higher energy manager and want to understand the workplace culture in which I was apart.

When it comes to working, I have been working since age 10. I have gone through many supervisors and had many different responses to the way that I was supervised. A recent job that I have had that I was very satisfied and loved my work which let me have a good attitude about it. This was my 5 years at Spirit Halloween. I loved everything about that job, the people, the work, the customers, and the pure joy that I had while working there. This job gave me something to look forward too. I worked there everyday from a range of 5-10 hours for months on end. But because I loved the work I did not mind the hours. The late nights closing or dealing with the unhappy customers. But because I have a great manager I was happy with the work I was doing and more then content doing the work that nobody else wanted to do. This job was an incredible job, and I learned many things from my supervisors there. They were kind, they listened, but they also stuck to their words. The biggest thing I remember from that job is that they made everyone feel welcomed and a part of the family. I was able to make lifelong friends with the managers that I had there, well as soon as I became a manager as well.

For a job that I have had that I was dissatisfied with and although I have had tried time after time again, I have gotten a poor attitude towards is actually my current job. I have worked my butt off for 3 years there, and recently it seems that all I can do is mess things up, no matter how many tasks I complete there just seems to be something else I am doing wrong. Although my direct supervisor has my back and keeps defending me, the other leadership has not stopped looking at me to try and find something new to complain about. Instead of telling me things as they were happening, they are waiting until now to go nit pick everything that I have been doing. This is probably the worst thing they could have done, they have caused me to look at different jobs around the wing and has made me want to do less work overall. But because I am who I am I still complete all my tasks on time or before time. There are different kinds of management that people respond to, I am one of those people that responds to a manager who tells me task but lets me figure out how I want to do the tasks.

Gosh, where do I begin.

2)   Speaking about this prior job still haunts me to this day as it was the worst experience of my life.

I was working as an assitant manager at Journeys (the shoe store).   As a manager we were required to work a minimum of 6 days a week with a minimum of 45 hours. This was the first dissasisfaction I encountered. Overtime is great however I was working on comission and overtime pay was based on how much you sold, some sort of chinese math they called it. All in all it was about $3 an hour extra to my paycheck when I worked over 40. However to my dismay, I worked 65+ a week. I had one day off which really I used for sleep. No life whatsoever.

Second dissatisfaction was that Journeys was all about sales goals, wether or not it was realistic wasn’t of any concern to corporate or my managers. They had 3 strict rules. 40% of your sale transactions had to include 2 or more pair of shoes. 10% of your sales had to include an item other than footwear (backpacks, watches, laces, shirts) and 5% of your sales you had to sell socks. Some seasons are slow for sales and some people just don’t want to buy any socks. But, as I said before, this didn’t matter to corporate. Employees were straight trash to them. If you didn’t meet your set goals for the month for whatever reason you’d get written up and and after 3, fired (which happend to me). I was working for the company for over two years as a manager and they got rid of me just like that because I didn’t sell an extra 5 packs of socks 3 times.

Third dissatisfaction was the work environment. New York in the winter gets cold, maybe not as cold as Alaska but its still pretty darn freezing. They had a rule that the store front doors had to stay wide open if the tempeture was 30F and over. They can be closed if it was below 29. The whole winter the doors were open in 30 degree weather. We would all work in our winter jackets, you could actually see our breath while standing waiting for customers to walk in. I eventually developed bronchitis and was sick for over a month. But once again, employee comfort or health didn’t matter – it was all about money money and money.

In my opinion, for Journeys to become a better company everybody in cororporate should be fired including the CEO and they need major reconstruction. There needs to be people on board who give a s*** about employees. I think they need to start there. Then move on forward to fixing the expectations of employees in regards to sales goals.

I was 23 at the time and if I knew what I know now, I would’ve sued them. Talking about my experience still gets me emotional because no employee should have been taken advantage of like that.

From this experience, I learned that to make employee’s happy it’s best to have a work enviornment where everyone feels appreciated.

My current job at the moment is at the Kuskokwim Consortium Library as a student worker for the Kuskokwim Campus. I have been working at the library since last fall and I am really satisfied with the position of being a student worker. As a student worker you would need to work at least ten hours a week and I am okay with that because I am not only a student in college, but also a member of the recycling committee as well. The library workers are understanding and let me work on some of my assignments that I may have due while working at the front desk. My job as a student worker at the library are watching the front desk, checking in and discharging books and movies, helping the library patrons with what they need help with, sorting and keeping the shelves organized, and picking up mail from the main campus. I could also request the librarian if I could work over the summer after the spring semester was done and be given more hours to work. I have done this during the spring 2019 before and started working more from the beginning of May to the end of August 2019.

Some of the factors that cause me to be happy and satisfied with working are understand one another and group effort of working at the library. Understanding one another is important for a group, team, or business no matter what it is and how it may affect the group. So when I told the librarian that I would be back in college for the 4th year I asked if I could work at least ten hours a week to see if I would have enough time for balance both my work life and college life and she understood. So if I were to be a supervisor, then I would need to be understanding and think about my employees and co-workers life outside of work. Also the work and group performance would be bad if there were no effort being put into the job and assignment. If we practice effort individually and group effort, then we could be able to get the job, project, or any event planning done before the deadline comes. If I have any co-workers/employees that do understand one another and respect each others perspectives, but are not making a group effort I would address them that the work is a group effort and that if we don’t work together as a group, then we may fall behind on the deadline.

I wanted to talk about my current position, in which is a great job with great benefits. I first started working for Navy Federal Credit Union in May of 2018. I liked it in the beginning, but then there was a period of about 4 months that I felt under appreciated, my co-workers had a lot of drama going on with their lives and in the workplace and I almost never had been able to trust my managers. I always felt that everything seemed very one sided and my manager was never direct with me and she avoided certain conversations that needed to occur. I did not care to show up for work I was only a part-time employee so I felt that I did not need to apply myself to this career. My management team could have bee more open with me and had better attitudes, one of my managers had a very passive aggressive attitude and it really upset me. However, just about three months ago, things changed at work, people began quitting and I was able to have a direct conversation with my manager and really explain to her how I felt and it could have been a possibility of me not understanding things the their way. After that conversation with my manager she was opened and apologized for the way I was feeling she assured me that if I was ever feeling that way she has an open-door policy. I then realized she had no idea on the way I saw things and in return I apologized to her for my lack of commitment and communication that caused me to almost leave my job. This was a good feeling and shortly after this conversation, I began to get a lot of feedback from my management team and eventually they moved me into a full-time position and I am in the works of a promotion. My managers began treating me better and taking into consideration things they had not before and that has made my work ethic change in a great way. I am always at work, everyone interacts better together and communication is open. I also wanted to mention that a high-paying job alone is not enough to create a satisfying work environment (Organizational Behavior, 82). In turn, I was experiencing an exit response because of lack of communication and not taking the initiative to voice my opinion. I ended up with a loyalty response and it paid off.

I’m a student-athlete and for me, it’s very difficult to find a job during the hockey season and school year. The only time I have time to work is summer. This past summer I worked as a hockey goalie coach at the youth camp. I enjoyed the work and working with the kids. I only worked for three weeks, but that was a great experience and can’t wait to do it again. We had a head coach of the camp who was kind of our supervisor and it was fun working for him. He cared what we were thinking and how to teach the kids new stuff and he made the camp fun for them as well. The manager needs to bring a positive atmosphere every day and only that can run the company to success. The manager did a good job managing the camp, everything went smoothly. His mindset was always to be better and grow, that’s what we teach to the kids also and he was a great example to them. Every morning he brought coffee for us and I enjoyed that as a big coffee lover. That made me like him even more and think that’s a good quality to have.

I was happy and satisfied working with kids. It’s a lot of fun to show them something new and see them trying to repeat it. I think the best part of it is when they ask you a lot of funny questions. Another reason that I liked was the coaching staff that we had, it was a great time with them especially before or after the practices in the coach’s room. I knew a couple of them since I was 5 years old and that made everything more fun.  This experience I’ll use in the future, how to manage a daily life for your employees and that you need to make every employee part of the team. I would try to communicate with every single employee and ask what they think and what could we do better.

I haven’t worked a job that I didn’t like or I was dissatisfied. If I had to face a job where I’m unhappy or dissatisfied the main reason could be the manager. I think in a job where a manager doesn’t communicate with employees or doesn’t show a good attitude it is hard to work for. I wouldn’t learn anything from that kind of manager. The manager needs to be on top of his work all the time and be able to react in emergencies.

My satisfied job was a Job that I had right after my junior year in Highschool ended. So I was super excited for the summer, I was like I’m gonna party, I get to sleep and have fun. But my father had different plans for me. He was taking that summer that was supposed to be fun in the sun, turned into work and learning how to survive after High School. So I didn’t have the best attitude at the beginning. And to top it off, the job was at the fair. So I got to watch others have fun. And eat amazing food. The job title was called a Carnival Crew Member. Which the duties vary. So for me I had to lay sawdust around the ground. Cater to the mechanics who help make sure the rides work. Cater to the people with the food stands. Now that one wasn’t so bad, because they gave me free food.

But on top of all that I had to work the rides and orchestrate the games.. Now this sounds like a dissatisfying Job. But everything changed after the first couple days. It started to get easier and I actually started to have fun. I got to watch kids go on scary rides, and all I did was press a button. I got to give kids gift when they won. And even got in shape from all the labor. My attitude has definitely changed. But a big part of it was the supervisor. When we first started their was the supervisor who was rude and really bossy. Which nobody liked. But then that supervisor left. And we got a new one, she was nice and supporting. I liked her work strategy, she let us work and if we were doing something wrong or goofing off, then she would come intervene. She was laid back but at the same time assertive with her actions.

What made the job happy and satisfying was the environment. I was surrounded by happy people and not a lot of stress. Which made the job easier and less stressful. It made me happy to get up and go to work. I would use my Supervisors mindset and a little of what I saw during that Job. Let people figure out how things work, and when they need an explanation be their. And have a positive mindset and attitude. She also was very nice and calm, So I would like to be like that as a supervisor. Because your attitude can either make the job easier or harder.

I graduated from High School in 1988. Ronald Reagan was President, and the Soviet Union was falling.   Many in this class will not understand these times. Some will! My first job was in the U.S. Army in Berlin Germany.   At the time, Berlin was a divided city and separated by ideology and mistrust.   But the job I had was to ensure that those on the other side of the wall did not cross the border undetected.   It may sound like a great job, but it was so dull!  I was satisfied because there was a reason for doing the job.   Guard duty was a job with a clearly defined set of principles and instructions with the potential to impact the lives of thousands of people on both sides of Berlin. The importance of the job was high in the minds of everyone involved.   The leaders trusted the soldiers and diversity in the unit was at a very high level.   Many soldiers came from different part of the United States and held beliefs that differed from other members and it allowed for the open and honest communication of ideas. From the job, I was able to understand that diversity from a leader establishes success and a feeling of usefulness that allows people to want to be there and perform a job that may be dull but is essential. I have used it in many positions over the last 30 years, and It has proven to work.

My dissatisfied job was a job I held briefly after retiring from the Army.   The idea was to provide a service to clients who needed assistance from government programs and allow them to prosper on their own.   It did not work out that way! The bureaucratic methods in place did not allow for diversity, ingenuity, or even a desire to help. Instead, the job relied on the throughput of cases.   Cases closed either satisfactorily or just closed.   It did not matter. The boss was in business to protect their position and no one else.   Many merited cases should have been handled quickly and efficiently were closed.   As long as the public relations people were on the job it did not matter if laws were ignored or bent. Only those people with a desire for a paycheck and no other prospects for employment remain.   Having a purpose for the job I am doing is important to me. Knowing that a difference is essential and knowing that the people who are leading me trust that I will do my best is the reason for remaining and working hard on whatever project I assigned.