The idea of loving your job may seem like a folklore snatched from an age-old book of mythology. The truth is individuals who love their jobs, perhaps, aren’t unicorns. Sure, they do share a few traits, which make them extraordinary, and help them with things they love the most. So what actually lures individuals into loving their jobs? There are probably a few nuggets, which eludes most of the individuals. Now, the phrase ‘love’ here doesn’t mean they never have a day off when they’d be rather doing something else. For the most segments, these are the individuals who get up wondering about, “What’s going to happen today at work? Did I mail the finished task to my manager? Oh, did I frame a report on monthly supply?”
What’s It About Loving Your Job?
Job autonomy is a significant concept, which has a long history in organizational and workforce sciences. Often, it has been linked to turnover, stress, and satisfaction just to name a few. Generally, the aspect that makes you fall in love with your job is the freedom to take your own decisions regarding work. A majority, 64 percent of employees around the globe feel they’re engaged at work because of freedom. Flexibility, Freedom, and Autonomy are key components of job satisfaction.
Mark, a software engineer working in a renowned tech company says, “Having the freedom to create, improvise and be entrepreneurial.” Similarly, Emilia working in the marketing department of popular event management company states, “I love having the freedom to experiment and fail, and still support my actions.”
One thing, which employees love the most in their job is permission to fail when they take a certain risk. Adam, who works as a writer in a digital media publishing house has a better view to offer. “I was merely a trainee when my editor called me in her cabin and asked me whether I could manage the contents of a whole website on my own. At the beginning, I was surprised as it was a huge thing to say, but I had to earn the trust by keeping up her expectation. So I did. Now, after years when I look back, I always thank my editor for offering me to carry on things in my way. Her trust offered me a sense of freedom and I felt motivated to do more eventually falling in love with my job.“
Embracing The Sense Of Freedom
Nothing makes an employee happier than being at a workplace that offers a sense of freedom in the workplace. When freedom pervades a workplace culture, you have a whole group of happy colleagues around. In most of the cases, companies swear by the freedom and environment offered to employees. Freedom arrives in many forms. There’s freedom to flex your work hours in order to accommodate a convenient family time while still fulfilling the organizational goals. You may have the freedom to bring in new ideas and do things differently opposing the stereotypes offered by management. Most importantly, the sense of freedom at the workplace, which allows you to enjoy a healthy work-life balance.
Organizations, however, may vary in the extent to which they may offer freedom in the true sense. Very few companies understand the idea of freedom in the workplace. The rest are trying to comprehend the notion of introducing such culture in their organizations. Google is one such company that has honed the art.
Carving A Niche For Freedom
In the workplace, offering freedom in the workplace by providing space to employees for the purpose of fulfilling their goals in the methods they see fit can be considered as a solid move of leadership, but only if conducted in a right way. Despite the scenario, as challenging as it may feel to define what freedom exactly means, the notion can be equally challenging as well as paradoxical when it comes to defining its boundaries. Freedom in the workplace is the ability to work from home, exercise creativity in order to reach immediate work goals, keep non-traditional hours, take unlimited vacation days, or otherwise. As far as why both small and large companies are embracing or considering employee autonomy, the reasons certainly run the gamut.