What makes a good job? Feeling that you matter – Opinion

There has been much discussion this year about what makes a good job, with factors such as pay, stability and career progression often topping the list.

Yet, there is something simpler that deserves equal consideration: whether a person feels valued as a human being.

The question came to mind on Jun 22, when management consultancy Gallup and the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) released a report showing that only 14 per cent of Singapore workers were engaged at work, leaving more than four-fifths disengaged.

While the report did not seek to identify a single cause for this, it found that managers account for around 70 per cent of the differences in engagement levels between teams.

It got me thinking about a manager I had early in my career, when I worked in a back-end role that was unglamorous but vital to the organisation’s operations.

That leader was not especially charismatic. But he had a knack for making people feel that they and their contributions mattered. 

Good work was recognised publicly. Criticism, when necessary, was delivered privately, factually and without malice. Most importantly, he never held grudges. Once an issue was addressed, everyone moved on.

As a result, few in our team ever felt our role was less important than those in more visible departments, even if others in the organisation sometimes saw it that way. We took pride in our work and wanted to do it well.

Such management practices may seem basic. But I have worked long enough – and heard sufficient stories from friends in both the private and public sectors – to know they are not as common as they should be.

In fact, many workplace complaints have little to do with the work itself. Employees may grumble about long hours, difficult clients or demanding deadlines, but often the biggest push factor is how they are treated.

Why employees leave

This was reflected in a study commissioned by the Law Society of Singapore and released on Jun 23, which identified poor management, bullying and unhealthy workplace cultures among the key reasons lawyers left private practice, rather than the nature of the work itself.

Employees, after all, rarely experience an organisation through its mission statement or values. They experience it through their managers.

That theme surfaced repeatedly during a panel discussion held alongside the launch of the Gallup-SID report.

One idea raised by Elizabeth Kong, a non-independent non-executive director at 3M India, stuck with me. She challenged the common refrain that employees are an organisation’s “greatest asset”. 

“What do we do with our assets?” she asked. “We sweat our assets.”

Kong warned that some leaders may subconsciously view employees as resources to be maximally utilised rather than people to be developed. If employees feel they are being “wrung dry”, it is little wonder that some become disengaged, she said.

She then suggested the concept of servant leadership, which inverts the traditional organisational pyramid, for consideration. 

Rather than take a traditional top-down management approach, such leaders seek to support the employees, prioritising their growth and enabling them to perform at their best.

As Kong noted, when employees feel genuinely valued, they are more willing to give their all.

My former manager never spoke about employee engagement or servant leadership. Yet, he helped create something that every good job should provide: a sense of belonging, ownership and purpose.

Source: The Business Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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