My career began in Personnel but ended in Human Resources. We transformed ourselves into becoming strategic partners to the business, or as my old boss used to say, we were no longer responsible for carrying the watermelon to the company picnic. We were to play a vital role in insuring the right structure and strategies were in place so the business would endure and prosper, and this included developing the best programs to attract, develop and retain the employees who were best for the business.

Becoming strategic business partners created some doubts in the minds of employees about whether HR was more concerned about the business rather than them. This was not the intent but the perception. We solved this problem by creating new HR positions responsible for strategy and Organizational Development, so that HR Generalists could get back to serving the day-to-day needs of employees.

Years later, and considering how HR's role was not only changed but expanded, you can't help but wonder why job dissatisfaction is still such a major problem. After all, HR has demonstrated some amazing ingenuity and innovation without which we'd still be in the dark ages related to working conditions and the integration of peoples, teams, cultures and currencies. Why after implementing so many programs and initiatives to insure job and employee satisfaction are we still dealing with issues of job stress, dissatisfaction and turnover?

The challenge as I see it is that we've made all the changes to the business, structure and people that are necessary except one: Employees still expect the employer to make them satisfied, and that's never always possible.

Despite the improvements HR has implemented, employees are still hired, developed and advanced with the expectation they will be made satisfied in exchange for their hard work, time and talents. There are no guarantees of course, but there is also no alternative or middle ground. Either you have job satisfaction or you don't, and if you can't get it or fix it, your options are to leave the organization or to stay and endure in order to receive a paycheck. You're only partially there.

In view of all the bad press about dissatisfaction and layoffs, anyone who works or intends to change jobs and careers is aware of these persistent challenges. But this has not diminished people's hopes of achieving job satisfaction. It's all we know and we've not been oriented to expect anything else. But now you have to wonder, is this really what we want?

In the meantime, employers keep struggling with how to resolve dissatisfaction and turnover. Their solution has been to increase retention by further improving satisfaction and involvement. However, this has reinforced employee expectations for more and improved satisfaction, and the cycle continues without employees ever feeling completely satisfied, which explains why the problems have never been resolved. We've been fighting fire with fire or chasing our tails and getting nowhere.

There is a point at which you can do no more to try and satisfy someone, either because you lack the budget or you realize it's impossible to satisfy everyone all the time. We hit this roadblock several years ago, but without an alternative expectation in mind, we still persist in the hope of being made satisfied.

It was Albert Einstein who said, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the level of thinking that created them." The point being, what was tried has not worked and it's time to give employees a new expectation. Here it is: Career is the pursuit of contentment derived from meaningful work, not just the transient satisfactions that keep you dependent on employers.

Somewhere along the way, while in hungry pursuit of the illusive satisfactions, we lost sight of our purposes for working beyond just income to pay expenses. Don't think it's naïve to discuss this because if all you're after is the money, what you do and the dissatisfactions shouldn't matter as long as you're getting paid. But apparently these things do matter or the reports worldwide regarding job dissatisfaction wouldn't be so dismal.

You need to live and pay your bills, but you also seek the contentment derived from utilizing your gifts and talents to fulfill your calling and purpose. You're selective in your choice of jobs and careers for this reason, and this makes the employer and satisfactions they provide instrumental to your purpose but secondary in importance to the outcomes you seek. In other words, you'll stay or leave and change jobs and careers in order to pursue what gives you career contentment, and the satisfactions are important but secondary.

Even though I matured professionally within HR, it has taken the last seven years of my life to understand the difference between job satisfaction and career contentment, and to thoroughly explain it in our books and learning materials. Contributing to the confusion has been the fact we use the terms satisfaction and contentment to mean the same thing, and this is dead wrong. It's important you understand the difference in order to adjust your thinking and expectations.

Job satisfaction is always dependent on someone doing or providing something before you are made satisfied, and it's always employer provided regardless of whether your satisfaction is intrinsic or extrinsic. You can't have it without the employer providing the job and trimmings, or without doing your part to earn and keep it. On the other hand, contentment is a state of mind you bring into existence simply by your ability to reason and to recognize the acceptable middle ground. It's neither dependent nor conditional except on how you reason, which explains why you can be content even if not happy or entirely satisfied.

The difference between these terms is subtle but significant in a world where nothing is perfect and not everything is likely to go your way. You can't always be satisfied but thankfully you can always reason to recognize your contentment in any situation.

It's unfortunate we've not trained employees how to do this on the job because contentment provides resiliency strength while satisfaction is merely the result of an expectation being fulfilled, and the reality is this may not always be possible. You need the strength from contentment more than you realize in order to have and enjoy the career you desire.

In situations where job satisfaction does not exist it's because you or the employer did not fulfill an expectation, you don't know how to recognize your career contentment, or you're in the wrong job. If the problems can't be fixed you need to learn how to recognize your career contentment, or otherwise, and particularly if you're in the wrong job, you need to take your contentment elsewhere rather than worsening your situation by complaining. The motivating factor is not just the employer provided satisfactions, but whether you're in the right job and your work is meaningful to the use of your talents and the fulfillment of your calling and purpose.

How does this alter expectations regarding job satisfaction and employee retention?

Job satisfaction is always co-dependent on the fulfillment of conditions over which employees have little to no control, including what employers offer or take away except by some form of bargaining, the effectiveness of their performance, or by their choice of jobs and employers. Even then, there are no guarantees because nothing in this world is absolutely perfect and not everything is likely to go their way. Job satisfaction is not the ideal thing an employee should be relying upon to have and enjoy the career they desire. Rather than waiting on employers to make them satisfied, which may or may not happen, they should be trained to reason, recognize and pursue their own career contentment.

As it pertains to retention, employers can influence job satisfaction but can't control what employees think or how they reason, recognize and pursue their career contentment. Retention is not just a matter of increasing job satisfaction, but insuring that an employee's work is meaningful to the use of their talents to fulfill their calling and purpose. It benefits no one to encourage the wrong employees to remain in the wrong jobs or careers, or with the wrong employers, and so generalized efforts to try and satisfy everyone are probably inefficient and ill advised.

Haven't we already proven across time and multiple generations that job satisfaction is always illusive and unreliable? The better solution involves promoting the expectation and fulfillment of career contentment whereby emphasis is not entirely on the transient satisfactions provided by employers, but on the authentic vocation, career self-reliance and resiliency strengths of employees to endure the dissatisfactions that are inevitable in an imperfect world. It's time to teach employees how to reason and recognize the acceptable middle ground and the significance of meaningful work to their career contentment. Do what you love but also make it a priority to find ways to love what you do rather than complaining.

Truth of the matter is employees who are content with meaningful work are usually willing to overlook some dissatisfaction in order to have the career they desire. And when they're serious about career, they can't be enticed to waste or ignore their talents by staying in the wrong jobs, or by forfeiting the fulfillment of their callings on behalf of the employer or for mere satisfactions. They will leave despite the employer's best efforts to keep them satisfied, or they will exploit the situation until it is convenient for them to leave.

Retention is feasible without job satisfaction provided employees are trained to reason and recognize their career contentment. Doing so not only develops their resiliency strengths to endure, but helps to insure retention of those who are best for the business.

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Copyright 2007 by Jeff Garton. All Rights Reserved.