I read alot of blogs during the day, and came across a very interesting post on the My Money blog discussing the three requirements for a satisfying job. They didn’t come up with these all by themselves; it comes from observations made in the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. To be honest, I haven’t read the book yet, so I have no idea if it’s good or not. However, I think the observations on job satisfaction are pretty accurate. Check it out:

• Autonomy - You must have a role in deciding what you do and/or how you do it.
• Complexity -  Your tasks must be intellectually stimulating and challenging.
• Connection Between Effort & Reward - You must be able to experience the results of your work.

That’s it. Looking back on things (back when I had a job) I can see that Gladwell is correct. The jobs I’ve been most happiest at are the ones where these three elements have been present. If you manage employees and you want to keep them, make sure you pay attention to this post and include these elements for your subordinates. If you are working a job that you are not happy in, find out what is missing and see if you can correct the problem.

Anyway, what do you think? Are there any other elements that Gladwell left out?