An Australian academic developed a scale for self-assessing job satisfaction on the following factors.



Fred Emery's job satisfaction rating is based on the following factors:

*** The first 3 can be rated from -10 to + 10

- 10 means "Not enough / I wish I had more... "               

0 means "Just right"               

+10 means "Too much / I wish I had less"

Elbow room: the sense that employees are their own bosses and that except in exceptional circumstances they don't have a boss breathing down their necks, but not too much elbow room so that they don't know what to do next.

Learning on the job and continuous learning, with setting of reasonable goals which are challenging, and with feedback on achievement to help to correct behaviour.

Task variety: optimum level (+ or -). They can vary the work to avoid boredom and fatigue and to gain the best advantages of settling into a satisfying rhythm of work.

***The second 3 are rated 0 to 10, i.e. low to high.

Getting help and respect from colleagues. Avoid negative or non-constructive situations e.g win-lose, or lose-lose etc.

Meaningful contribution: the worth and the quality of the output/outcome, and having a perception of the whole product.

A desirable future: not a dead end job, hopefully one which will allow personal growth.

I've used this in work based consultations in local government and also in my teaching (job seeking skills, and women & employment courses)

It's a very powerful scale which helps to identify what contributes to your satisfaction in your job.

Helen