Job Satisfaction : Myth or Reality?

Hmmm, I am writing a blog after a long time…was caught up in so many things, increased workload, increased traffic (for past so many days, I am spending atleast 4.5 hours on road despite my home being just 14kms from my office, thanks to the pathetic roads…Phewww!!!), & increased home pressure too. But of course like everybody else, the most important thing out of all these which is controlling my life right now is my job,
Few days back, I was talking to this very close friend of mine who is sort of quite level headed & balanced in his outlook. I asked him that despite so many problems at his work front, how does he seem to be so satisfied with his job? He very simply replied in one short & sweet sentence, “JOB SATISFACTION IS A MYTH”. I was quite surprised to listen to this esp. from him as he generally seemed to be not much disturbed by his work front, & he seldom used to complain about his job. So I always used to think that he is sort of satisfied with his job. Seeing the confusion on my face, he further told me that during initial years of his job, even he used to crave for this so called “job satisfaction” thing but he learnt it hard way soon that there is no such thing existing, every job he changed was having some or other problem, so now he has given up or rather learnt adjust.
Later on I pondered over his sentence for long & even I started wondering if there is anyone whom I know who is happy & satisfied with his or her job. Frankly speaking, I get too affected if things aren’t o.k at my work front & many times despite my efforts I also don’t get this so called “job satisfaction” in my work. In my pursuit for more knowledge about this job satisfaction, I decided to check this with few more of my colleagues & friends if they feel satisfied by their jobs & are they happy with their current job, if yes, then how??? Well, well, well, I was quite astonished to find the answer as out of so many people whom I asked, I didn’t find even a single, I am repeating not even a single person who was satisfied by his or her job. The reasons were varied, but the crux was same, “Job Satisfaction is a myth”. Most of them are working because they know that they have to work for money, social status etc. etc. but none of them were so called satisfied by their corporate jobs & the reasons cited by them were either one or many of the following:

• Financial incentives not proportional to the workload, low salary.
• Boss is a big pain in life, too demanding.
• Ever increasing workload leaving no space for personal life.
• No recognition/motivation for job well done.
• Sick Office Environment e.g., too political, too much favoritism.
• Dumb nature of work i.e., work is too dull or boring, non-challenging.
• Performance Appraisal isn’t an open system.
• Poor HR policies like leave policy, concern for employees etc.
• Low or zero promotion scope, too much hierarchy
• Unhealthy competition, unethical rules.

Hmmm…so some are having good salary but not good work, some are having good work but not good salary, some are having both but not good boss…ha ha ha, reminds me of this sher- “Har kisi ko mukkamal jahan nahi milta, kisi ko zameen toh kisi ko aasmaan nahi milta…”, but whatever be the reason everybody supported that there is no such phenomenon as “job satisfaction” in present age!!!
Well, I am really confused now. Despite such long working hours, increased salaries, increased standard of living, why this huge dissatisfaction? Is it because of general human tendency to be dissatisfied or is it really a myth???

Update: Just heard from a friend right now that he has finally given up his corporate job to pursue his artistic dream. He was working in corporates for past 6 years & he told that not even once he experienced this so called job satisfaction from his corporate assignments, so he finally decided to take this risk & is feeling very happy right now. Well he also informed that his family is not at all happy with his decision as he isn't able to earn sufficient money like earlier. Hmmm... I admire his courage & wish him good luck for his new journey...But I don't know how many of us are prepared for such big risks in our lives??? What about those who are having enough responsibilities & social/peer pressure? Can they take such risk? I don't think so...