Career voyage

Are you satisfied with your job? Photo: Burningbiscuit.com

JOB satisfaction is the key to job performance. A cause and effect relationship does not always exist between job satisfaction and performance, though the two are closely related. Just because two things are related doesn't mean that one causes the other.
Job satisfaction depends on a plethora of factors, the main factor being how as a worker I can fulfill my physiological, safety, social and self-esteem needs as has been espoused by the great American psychologist Abraham Harold Maslow. Money is a small player for meeting Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.
If I am satisfied and happy in my work, I will perform better than someone who is not happy at work. Even if I am satisfied and happy with my work, my performance may also deteriorate if my bosses are not happy in their interpersonal relationships. I may also lose interest if I ever come to know that the products the factory I am working in is producing are not as valuable to humans as those produced by a factory where my friend works.
I am ready to work for a lesser pay if I can boast about my company as to their reputation in the business world, a very sensitive factor affecting our egoistic satisfaction -- a factor that propelled Mother Teresa into dedicating her entire life as a spinster for the service of the hapless in India thousands of miles away from her home in Poland.
During a recent session meant for our bank's probationary officers where I was giving a lecture on performing and non-performing assets, I stole some moments to infuse into the young minds of the trainees a dose of zeal and inspiration so that they feel proud of Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB), the largest partner of the government for agricultural development of our country.
BKB is the very bank, I told them, that played the most pivotal role back in the year 1977 in infusing collateral-free micro-loans in our rural areas under "Taka 100 Crore Special Agricultural Credit Program" which was in fact the vaccine against the future poverty of Bangladesh -- a vaccine that salvaged our country from a bleak future. Absence of that vaccine would have made today's Bangladesh much more devastated than today's Ethiopia by a level of poverty which could be much more deadly than pandemic smallpox.
In the course of my lecture to the probationary officers what I wanted to impress upon them is: "No matter how humble its outlets are and no matter how unassuming its annual financial report is, BKB is the flagship in the battle against the poverty of our country and working for such a righteous organisation should be viewed as a sacred mission, a philanthropic assignment neither a man greedy for money nor a woman hungry for posh interior of an office is suitable for."
Our exhortations for the young probationers' developing a sense of belongingness with the bank seemed to have worked well as in the certificate awarding ceremony we heard a lady probationary officer named Shupti open her heart to declare: "It is our poor tax payers' money we used to earn our higher education from colleges and universities. No organisation can be better than Bangladesh Krishi Bank where our service benefiting agricultural farmers can at least partially compensate for our debts to taxpayers. I on behalf of all the probationers hereby pledge our wholehearted commitments that we will live up to your total expectations." Bemused at her candid expression of gratitude the whole crowd inside the auditorium cheered and clapped in unison.
In Bangladesh the concept that every graduate should have opportunities to apply their earned knowledge in suitable fields has never been given credence. Career planning has been deemed a low priority and job markets short of enough vacancies have been frustrating young people who are found floundering helplessly not knowing where to find their stations. Nevertheless, many of our youngsters have also been successful careerists.
If you are a fresh graduate you must think about a career; earlier you start thinking about what you'd enjoy, the better off you'll be. Learn good speaking and writing skills in both Bangla and English and take courses in computer science to supplement your basic discipline. Leave no road unexplored. In today's world, there are never any guarantees, but some careful planning at the beginning of your career hunting may help lead you to a more secure future.
We have observed that it is always the mediocre talents who do well in their jobs like in a bank or in a corporation. Extraordinarily talented students mysteriously slip over on the rugged pathways of business offices though they excel in jobs in the fields of academia.
Geniuses throughout their academic careers chased for the best trophies in their classrooms, a passion they also try to rashly pursue in jobs only to find themselves skidded out in the race and they are more apt to hop from one job to another landing ultimately themselves an inglorious finality in their career paths. Job hopping, though a fad in the West, does not necessarily bring good results in our country as job avenues are extremely limited and the possibility of finding a suitable job is rare, especially for a novice without experience. A majority of job-holders are "square pegs in round holes."
On the other hand, mediocre students are not extremely ambitious; they are usually content with what they get. They are more amenable to adaptability. Steadily and silently they climb the ladder up to reach upper levels of hierarchy. They learn how to derive pleasures from little achievements in their jobs; they dare not strive for too many shiny trophies too quickly.
Whatever our jobs, whatever our pays and perks, we should remember that job satisfaction and concomitant performance depend on how we look at our career voyages. Some enjoy journeys by air and some by train; some enjoy jobs in fire brigade, some in a prestigious corporation -- and some also in a hospital for treating lepers. Deriving pleasures from every facet of life, after all, depends on the colour of the lens we look through. We must look before we can expect to see.

Maswood Alam Khan is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank.