Career Contentment: The Mindful Solution When Satisfaction and
Engagement Programs Fizzle
By Jeff Garton
The practice of job satisfaction has become so ingrained in business culture that the
employee-centric topic of career contentment is overlooked and misunderstood. However,
this emotion plays a dominant role in how people self-motivate to manage their careers
independently of an employer's satisfaction and engagement programs. It's why those
programs work inconsistently or not at all.
Overlooked and Misunderstood
The practice of job satisfaction was first implemented in the early 1900s to make amends for the mistreatment of
employees during the Industrial Revolution. Since the 1970s, Harvard Business Review has featured multiple
articles expressing doubts about the effectiveness of this century old practice that must now be reinforced with
engagement programs. But despite this additional expense, Gallup reports the majority of employees are neither
satisfied nor engaged. After decades of eliminating jobs and shrinking rewards, employees have come to the
realization that while it's good to be made satisfied, job satisfaction is transient and unreliable, and employers are
not in business to make them happy.
When you look objectively at job satisfaction, you see why it has fizzled for every generation entering the
workforce. Its objective is not truly employee centric. It intends to sway people's career choices, stoke their loyalty
to employers, and their commitment to work. While research has found this can temporarily influence some
employees, scientists during the 1990s, confirmed people are not directly motivated from the outside by their
circumstances or other people. You can only be self-motivated from within by emotions you control exclusively by
how you choose to think. This means any program administered from the outside will be limited in its effectiveness
unless employers are successful in persuading how employees choose to think. So rather than motivating
employees, the practice of job satisfaction contributes to establishing an US vs. THEM mentality.
The idea of an opposing mentality was discussed by psychologist Harry Levinson in his classic article,
Management by Whose Objectives. He said people don't choose their careers or devote their lives to working for
traditional job satisfactions. Even the most loyal employees manage their careers to fulfill their authentic and
evolving purposes for working, regardless if they're made satisfied to fulfill an employer's purposes. That people
who work are striving for something more meaningful than satisfaction and this facilitates their retention, selfmotivation, and natural engagement with work they've chosen, and employers don't recognize or understand this.
The overlooked and often misunderstood solution for improving productivity and retention was mistakenly
revealed by the University of Chicago's General Social Survey (GSS).
After decades of tracking employee satisfaction rates, the GSS reported that what keeps people in their jobs and
productive, despite their perennial lack of satisfaction is "satisfaction." This conclusion made no sense, and the
ensuing confusion prompted employers to ask if their employees were satisfied or not. To clarify, the employees
referred to by this report were dissatisfied with their work conditions but simultaneously content to remain in the
jobs they chose because this kept them on the right path to fulfilling their authentic purposes for working.
Contentment is the overlooked solution. Their decision to be content motivated those employees to remain in their
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jobs and stay productive despite their lack of satisfaction. Contentment has been under the radar for decades
because its true meaning has been misunderstood.
According to Merriam Webster, our society has evolved a meaning for contentment that differs from what was
originally intended. We assume contentment means satisfaction or settling for less, and this could not be further
from the truth. Not only do these words have different meanings, satisfaction is a condition you may not be able to
control while contentment is an emotion you control exclusively by how you choose to think. Thoughts create
emotions that can be experienced without regard to your good or bad circumstances, and they facilitate your selfmotivation. This allows you to be content or discontent regardless if you're made satisfied or not.
Why is satisfaction a condition and not an emotion? Although satisfaction is experienced as a feeling, not all
feelings are emotions. For example, you can feel tall or short, hungry or full, hot or cold, wet or dry, and rich or
poor, but height, appetite, temperature, weather, and wealth are conditions you can't create or change by how you
think. You can decide if an employer has made you feel intrinsically or extrinsically satisfied, but you can't create
or increase either type of satisfaction without the job and amenities that are budgeted for and controlled by
employers. The only way to increase your job satisfaction is through negotiations or by leaving for another job.
Job satisfaction is conditional on having your expectations filled by people you don't control and material things
you can't always have. Satisfaction isn't an emotion and doesn't provide direct motivation, but contentment does.
Inner Work Life Orientation
Inner work life is the term coined by Harvard psychologists to describe how an employee's thoughts about their
work create emotions that play a significant role in affecting their attitude, performance, innovation, and retention.
That by learning to become mindful of thinking in a non-negative manner to create helpful emotions, i.e., void of
complaining, an employee's contented inner work life facilitates their improved personal effectiveness and ability
to cope with job dissatisfactions. Although these findings reveal the importance of how employees should be
oriented to think, researchers also found that managers are "oblivious" to the impact an employee's inner work life
can have on their productivity and retention. They don't understand how an employee's exclusive control of their
contentment supersedes an employer's control of their satisfaction, which doesn't provide motivation.
Due to this lack of knowledge, employers don't realize how promoting the practice of job satisfaction is orienting
employees to think in a manner that can weaken their productivity. When employers promote this practice in ads,
annual reports, employee handbooks, benefit presentations, and coaching sessions, they're orienting the inner
work lives of employees to expect satisfaction, which in turn invites their cynicism and complaints when this can't
always happen. Furthermore, by not placing equal emphasis on career contentment, employees have become
conditioned to complain even when occupying jobs in which they're genuinely content and would rather not leave.
The net result of which is an unfavorable inner work life that contributes to their sour attitude and inconsistent
performance. This helps us understand why the majority of employees are dissatisfied and stay that way.
To illustrate, researchers from New York University found that employees whose inner work lives were reward
oriented to expect job satisfaction represent 72% of the workforce. These employees were more likely to have
issues with self-motivation and performance, expected to leave their job sooner, spoke poorly of their employers,
work conditions, and coworkers, and gained less from their work experiences. Of the remaining 28% of
employees who were purpose oriented, they went to work focused on making things happen rather than being
made satisfied. These employees were perceived as better performers and more likely to be selected as leaders.
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Although purpose oriented employees are more appealing to employers, their numbers are unlikely to rise until
emphasis is placed on their control of inner work life to achieve career contentment. Due to the oversight of this
topic, and how employee attitude surveys focus mainly on job satisfaction, employers don't know how many of
their disgruntled employees are genuinely content and would rather not leave. This bit of knowledge could pay
dividends when attempting to retain best employees as the job market continues to improve. Just because
employees are dissatisfied doesn't mean they're discontent.
A major portion of my career was spent in HR with the Miller Brewing Company. We took pride in being
recognized as a Fortune Best Employer for our job satisfaction programs. This was despite how our attitude
surveys told us that employees were always dissatisfied. So when a downturn in sales prompted our first salaried
headcount reduction, we assumed that due to their complaining, employees would accept a financial incentive to
leave so a layoff could be averted. When only a few people nearing retirement took the offer, the forced layoff
provided a revelation. The people we let go expressed concerns they might never find another job in which they
were so content and didn't want to leave. We couldn't pay people enough to leave the jobs we had unintentionally
oriented them to complain about. We forgot to teach them how to recognize their contentment. So how does this
emotion facilitate an employee's motivation to remain in a dissatisfying job situation?
Self-Transcendence
How employees rely on the emotion of contentment to persevere without being made satisfied was described by
the psychologist, Abraham Maslow as self-transcendence. Before his death in 1970, Maslow added selftranscendence as the new sixth level above self-actualization on his pyramid of needs. He said to accomplish selfactualization or one's authentic purpose without being made satisfied you self-transcend the inevitable
dissatisfactions by controlling how you think so to meta-motivate your resilience to persevere using the most
helpful emotions. In present day terms, this is described as an employee's control of their inner work life and the
bi-product of career contentment to succeed without satisfaction.
Why contentment is the ideal emotion for self-transcendence and career self-reliance is because it's aligned with
your beliefs, core values, and authenticity. As such, it functions like an internal GPS. You rely on contentment to
discern from within what's best for you, and it motivates you to act on your decisions. This includes which job you
take, how hard you work, how long you stay, and where you go next without knowing in advance of taking a job if
you'll be made satisfied. To remain true to your authentic self, it's unlikely you would settle for anything less than
what you believe will enable your contentment, and if you decide you're discontent, no amount of artificial
satisfaction can make you content. Contentment provides the self motivation you rely on to stay in a job you want
when frustrated by dissatisfactions and discontentment provides the self-motivation you rely on to leave a job you
don't want when enticed with satisfactions. According to Chris Peterson, the co-founder of positive psychology,
unless you allow your thinking and authenticity to be persuaded, your control of contentment to manage your
career trumps an employer's control of your satisfaction.
You could say that without the emotion of contentment to help you stay on track to fulfill your purposes, you would
be merely a human resource for the fulfillment of an employer's purposes. This is acceptable to some people, who
work primarily for the satisfactions employers provide, but for high potentials, purpose oriented people, Generation
X, and Millennials, they're swayed less by satisfactions they realize are transient and unreliable. These people
have inner work lives that are oriented to going after what they believe will give their career the most contentment.
This helps us understand why so many young people have recently taken the entrepreneurial route. This is also,
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why many employers see value in establishing an entrepreneurial culture. They may think they're facilitating job
satisfaction, but they're capitalizing on an employee's self-motivation to pursue their career contentment.
Four Dimensions of Employment
The psychological significance of career contentment should not be overlooked or marginalized as it accurately
depicts how people manage their careers independently of an employer's programs. This topic reveals how there
are four dimensions to employment, not just the two dimensions created by job satisfaction or job dissatisfaction.
For example:
You can have Career Contentment (job is wanted)...
1. With Job Satisfaction (made satisfied and purposes are being fulfilled).
2. Or without Job Satisfaction (not satisfied but still worth fighting for because purposes are being fulfilled).
Or you can have Career Discontentment (job is needed, but not wanted)...
3. With Job Satisfaction (made satisfied, but only a matter of time before you leave).
4. Or without Job Satisfaction (not satisfied, but doesn't matter as your purposes are not being fulfilled)
To illustrate the viability of all four dimensions, let's say you've decided to become a nurse to pursue your passion
for healing and you're being made satisfied (dimension #1). You want the job, but over time, you become
dissatisfied with your inconvenient work scheduling (dimension #2). If despite your dissatisfactions, you feel
motivated to remain a nurse or if you feel motivated to leave for a more satisfying job and you stick with nursing,
you have career contentment. All you lack is job satisfaction, which is less important than the opportunity to fulfill
your authentic purposes for wanting to be a nurse, your career contentment.
But if you experience a new calling such that your authentic purpose for working as a nurse evolves, you have
career discontentment and making you satisfied (dimension #3) is unlikely to deter your self-motivation to pursue
a career change. This is particularly true if you believe you'll be more content in a different career field. However,
if you fail to honor your authenticity by not making the change, your discontent will escalate until you heed the
calling. If you're in a job where you're discontent and not being made satisfied (dimension #4), this can be painful,
but you realize you're swapping your time for dollars until you find something else.
If you later regain your passion for healing and you once again see this as your authentic purpose for working, you
can restore your contentment within healthcare by reorienting how you think, your inner work life. You might return
as a nurse or in some related capacity. Thereafter in an imperfect world, it's inevitable something or someone will
cause your dissatisfaction (you continue to fluctuate between dimensions #1 and #2), which you'll be selfmotivated to cope with for the opportunity to fulfill your purposes. You have career contentment without job
satisfaction. Things would go a lot smoother for you had we remembered to teach you how to recognize your
contentment and leverage this emotion to self-transcend your dissatisfactions without complaining.
Moving Forward
After what we learned from the first layoff at Miller Brewing, if an employee complained about their inevitable
dissatisfactions we would politely guide their self-discovery by asking: If you're so unhappy, why don't you leave?
They knew another layoff was possible, so this question urged them to begin reorienting their inner work life to
recognize contentment. This turnaround is now achievable through training. Career contentment is not a program
in the same ilk as job satisfaction or engagement. It's not budgeted for and never needs to be replenished. The
potential for its existence already resides in the minds and hearts of employees and it's already guiding how they
manage their careers. It's a matter of teaching employees about the role this emotion plays and how to reorient
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their thinking to improve their inner work lives, and as a result, their productivity and retention when their
satisfaction is certain to fizzle.
Embracing the topic of career contentment doesn't excuse employers from having to make employees happy and
enthused, but that's not why employers are in business or the only reason people work. Employers will always be
expected to do their part, but after being made satisfied, employees should be expected to do their part by
learning to recognize their contentment, particularly when it's not always financially feasible for some employers to
keep investing in programs we already know provide temporary results and no direct motivation.
Here's the suggestion for employers intending to retain employees and keep them productive:
 Realize that no matter what job satisfactions you provide it's impossible to keep all employees satisfied all the time
at the same time. Besides, only employees can make themselves happy from within.
 Stop chasing after employees with programs destined to fizzle. Get back to the basics of running the business and
focus on creating a work environment that is productive, safe, secure, fair, efficient, and profitable.
 Begin training to reorient how employees have been conditioned to think, their inner work life, by placing as much
or more emphasis on their control of career contentment to manage their attitude, performance, and careers.
 Don't fret over the possibility of losing employees who can't recognize their contentment. You can make them
satisfied, but you can't make them content. Their authenticity won't allow it. If they don't want you, let them leave.
Here's the suggestion for employees who prefer to have a more meaningful career without depending so much on
others to make them satisfied, which can't always happen:
 Learn to become mindful of how you think to create and maintain a contented inner work life and how to leverage
this emotion to maintain your performance and manage your career regardless if you're made satisfied or not.
 Stop complaining about dissatisfactions that are inevitable in an imperfect world.
 Realize that career contentment is not about being made satisfied. It involves learning to appreciate what you have
as you continue working toward what you desire, the fulfillment of your purposes for working.
On demand Career Contentment Training was developed based on cutting edge science, empirical research, and
resources published by the Association for Talent Development (ATD). For information or to request a syllabus,
send an email to [email protected]. You can also visit the online learning portal for the Career
Contentment course and click the VIDEO tab for presentations on this topic.
Jeff Garton is an ATD best-selling career author, coauthor with Warren Bennis, and master certified coach specialized in
leading the global talent management for Kraft Foods and Miller Brewing. [email protected].
Further Reading:
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Amabile, T.M., and Kramer, S.J. (2007). Inner work life: Understanding the subtext of business performance. Harvard
Business Review, 85:5, 72-83.
Cappelli, Peter. (2008). Managing Uncertainty, Talent Management for the Twenty-First Century. Harvard Business
Review. June.
Garton, J. (2008). Career Contentment: Don't Settle for Anything Less. ASTD Press, Alexandria, VA.
Hayes, Steven C., Strosahl, Kirk D., Wilson, Kelly G. (2012). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Second Edition:
The Process and Practice of Mindful Change. New York. The Guilford Press.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and
illness. New York:
Koltko-Rivera, Mark E. (2006). Rediscovering the later version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Self-transcendence
and opportunities for theory, research, and unification. Review of General Psychology, Vol 10(4), 302-317.
Langer, Ellen J. (1998). The Power of Mindful Learning. Perseus Books Group.
Peterson, Christopher. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Seligman, Martin E. P. (1998). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Pocket
Books.
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