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Which is best: interesting job or well-paid job?
A high salary can make you more unhappy, while jobs that start off
interesting don't always remain so, says Rhymer Rigby
As you rise through the ranks, you often move away from what makes your
job interesting Photo: Alamy
By Rhymer Rigby
8:29AM GMT 04 Dec 2014
It’s the topic of a thousand dinner party conversations. Is it better
to have a job which pays very well or a job that is genuinely
interesting? Do you want people to say, “Wow, that’s cool†when you
tell them what your chosen vocation is? Or do you want to go on holiday
in the Maldives and drive a Range Rover Sport?
The conventional thinking on money and job satisfaction comes from a
theory developed by the psychologist Frederick Herzberg. He proposed
that there were two sets of factors in the workplace. One group, known
as motivators, cause satisfaction. These are things like achievement,
advancement and interest in work. The other group, called hygiene
factors, cause dissatisfaction if they are absent – and salary is part
of this group. So, if you don’t earn enough you will be dissatisfied.
But once you earn enough, extra money counts for very little.
In fact, says Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology at
Lancaster University, a higher salary may actually make you less happy.
“You’ll be giving up things like time with your family and friends in
order to earn the extra money.†The answer might seem obvious, then.
Find a job that is interesting and where you earn enough, but don’t
worry about about earning a vast salary because the Range Rover won’t
make you happy if you never have time to see your girlfriend.
However, context is hugely important. If you live in an ultra-expensive
city such as London or New York, “enough†may be well into six figures.
So you may have considerably more latitude when it comes to an
interesting job if you’re based in Bristol or Leeds. Equally, if your
friends are high-earning bankers and lawyers, you may experience far
more salary-related dissatisfaction than you would if they were
teachers. Time of life is important too. “If you’re divorced and have
no kids then you might be far happier working all hours to earn a huge
salary,†says Prof Cooper.
There are also gender differences. “We did some research which showed
that 18 per cent of people were mainly motivated by money,†says Ian
Gooden, CEO of the HR consultancy Chiumento. “But men are twice as
likely to be motivated by money than women and this is particularly
true of men under 35.†So, working in the City until your mid 30s and
then going to do something interesting that pays less is actually a
very smart idea, in terms of your happiness.
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Money can cause satisfaction and dissatisfaction in other ways too. We
tend to benchmark ourselves against our peers. So if you get a £1m
bonus, you’ll be pleased – unless Mike, who sits next to you, gets a
£1.5m bonus. To anyone on a normal salary, this may sound ridiculous –
but it’s not actually about the money, it’s about the recognition. The
extra £500,000 says that Mike performed 50% better than you and that’s
what’s making you unhappy.
Gooden warns that it’s also very easy to get trapped in high-earning
jobs. “You get the phenomenon of ‘economic prisoners’ where you wind up
stuck in a job you hate because you need the salary to support your
lifestyle.†You can’t turn round to your partner and explain that
you’re going to take the kids out of private school and move to a
smaller house because you hate your career. “There is no acceptable way
out,†he says.
What about an interesting job, then? On the face of things, doing
something that stimulates and interests you should be far more positive
than going for the big bucks. However, while this is mostly true, there
are downsides to cool jobs.
For starters, people often go into sectors because they’re widely
viewed as being interesting and not because they personally find the
job in question interesting. Thus, you might get a job in the media,
when actually you’d be much happier (and probably better paid) working
in IT because what really motivates you is solving problems. So you
need to think hard and honestly about what interests you.
Which would you rather have:
Bear in mind too that, when it comes to interest, all jobs to some
extent revert to the norm. What you loved when you joined can easily
become just work three years down the line, especially if you are the
kind of person who sees work as a means to an end. Moreover, as you
rise through the ranks, you often move away from what makes your job
interesting and into general management, which is pretty similar
whatever sector you’re in.
You often see this with people who work in tech: they don’t want to be
promoted because they want to do the interesting stuff, not manage
people. “Be very careful about letting go of what interests you for
more money,†says Gooden. In fact, he adds, while there is a common
belief that we should all aim as high as possible at work, “Not many
people are motivated by really demanding jobs.â€
So, is it more important to earn a lot of money or have an interesting
job? The answer is that you need to step back and ask yourself what is
important to you – while reminding yourself that your work does not
exist in isolation. However, we can say that earning vastly in excess
of what you need is not likely to make you happy – and if you have the
choice between a job that interests you and pays enough and one that
doesn’t interest you and pays far more, you should go for the former.
Finally, it’s worth remembering that one of the most significant
contributors towards happiness at work is not related to how
interesting your job is or how much it pays. “Relationships at work are
so important,†says Prof Cooper, “especially your relationship with
your line manager.†In fact, if you hate your boss, you’ll probably
still be miserable, even if your job is both fascinating and well-paid.
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