Job Satisfaction and Performance

This piece concerns job satisfaction and performance.  In the over 40 years that I have worked in industry, I have had over 30 jobs and bosses (many of the jobs were through promotions).  Having worked under all of those supervisors/bosses, the conclusion I come to is this: It is extremely important as to whom you work for that determines your performance, performance appraisal, and job satisfaction.  If you work for the right boss, you will perform well, receive good ratings, and will be happy with your job.  I have found that good bosses come few and far in between.  Of the over 30 bosses/supervisors that I have had, most of them I considered average, below average, or even lousy bosses.

I have had only five bosses/supervisors that I consider great bosses.  The handful of great bosses I had possesses many of the great leadership and management characteristics we read about in our textbooks.  They spent the necessary time with you.  They cared.  They gave praise when you earned and deserved praise.  They were thoughtful.  They set good examples.  They motivated instead of de-motivated you.  They believed in you.  They made you feel important and part of the team.  They communicated well.  They helped you when you needed help.  They supported you.  They gave you freedom to exercise your talents and abilities.  They did not micromanage you.  They dealt honestly with you.  The list can go on and on for the great bosses I have had.  You know it when you have a great boss.  Try to stick with that person when you find one like him or her.

You may be performing superbly on a job.  Then, for some reason or another, a new supervisor or boss transfers in and replaces your great boss.  That new boss, for some reason or other, does not like you.  Even though you continue performing at the high level that you were with your previous boss, this new boss is never satisfied with what you are doing.  He/she grades you down on your next performance appraisal.  Even though you perform as the same high-performing person, now, on paper, it states that you are mediocre to below average.  How can that be?  The only difference is you now have a different but lousy boss.  Consequently, your attitude goes down and so does your performance.  Thus, the new boss considers you as a poor performer, and now, your attitude and performance matches his/her assessment of you.  You are in a very bad situation.  It is time to get out of there!  Have any of you had different experiences?  Do you have any thoughts regarding this topic?  Write them down in the comment box below.

Cheryl Walraven wrote,“I agree with you but with a caveat.  Your great boss may be someone else’s lousy boss.  I have seen one of my favorite bosses—who demonstrated your list of great leadership/management characteristics and behaviors—viewed in the totally opposite view by other team members.  This seems to be an example of personalities and attitude differences.”

My response to Cheryl: You bring up an excellent point!  Absolutely, one person’s good boss is another person’s lousy boss.  The same boss of two different direct reports—one he/she likes and the other he/she hates—may be a good boss and a bad boss simultaneously.  How can that be?  Obviously, the one who the boss likes will get the raises, promotions, awards, and other perquisites.  On the other hand, the other direct report, who the boss hates, he/she screws and gives nothing good at best.

Yes, I have seen this dynamic in action in real life.  In fact, I have been in both roles where one boss thought I could do nothing wrong, and the other boss thought I could do nothing right.  I am the same person in both cases, yet this very marked dichotomy exists between two different bosses with opposite evaluations of my abilities.

This becomes discouraging, particularly when you work in a matrix organization and report to two bosses simultaneously.  Both bosses feel you work directly for them, and therefore, they expect 100 percent of your time, dedication, and effort to their projects.  For you, this is a lose-lose situation.  Both bosses will be unhappy with you because you split your efforts and loyalties.

Thus, as with treasures, one woman’s treasure is another woman’s trash.  We have these same dichotomies whether we deal with business, politics, philosophies, religions, and about everything else.  Hence, what it all boils down to is this: You should work for a friend, someone that you have a solid relationship with, and someone with which there is total, mutual trust.  I have friends like that, where, if they came into a significant position and called me to come to work with them, I would do it at a moment’s notice.

In conclusion, the right boss to work for, then, is a close friend who you trust implicitly and vice versa.  It is no wonder that people in high positions hire their friends with which they had worked with in previous companies.  It makes sense, does it not?  Why would you want complete strangers working for you?  Hence, that is why people with same values like to team together, or birds of the same feather like to flock together.

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