In our last post we talked about aptitudes and how to assess your job satisfaction against whether you are working with your natural abilities. Today we are going to talk about the workplace and how to assess whether you are working in the right environment. 

We will use our Three Layer approach to break down the results of research and job satisfaction surveys to help you understand which things are most important to you while you decide where to spend a third of your life. 

The first layer is the transaction — the visible, negotiable terms of the job that are often spelled out in the job description, many of which are straightforward. What is the compensation? Is there job security and room for growth? Is there a commitment to work-life balance and flexibility around in person versus remote work? Is collaboration encouraged and is the physical environment conducive to working alone and in teams? 

The second layer is the emotional and psychological experience of you and the people you work with. These are things you can ask about, but you really discover the truth of them after you start and settle into the culture. Things like the quality of your relationships with the people you work with every day, and whether leadership delivers on the values it espouses. Do you feel genuinely valued and is there a place for your opinions and observations to be heard? Do you feel like you truly belong to something or do you just show up to do the job? 

Do you feel a sense of purpose around the mission? Does the work matter to you? Are there opportunities to see the impact of what you do, whether on the internal team or through the work itself?  

The third layer is awareness, and it works in both directions. As an employee, Layer 3 is the ability to assess your situation honestly — not just whether the workplace is delivering what you need, but whether you are showing up fully, getting your work done well, and actively contributing to the wellbeing of the team and the culture around you. The conditions you want from a workplace are the same conditions you have a responsibility to help create. 

From the organization’s side, Layer 3 is whether leadership is paying real attention to how their people are doing, not just whether the work is getting done, but whether people are developing, whether their wellbeing is being taken seriously, and whether they create the conditions for employees to do their best work. Many companies want to support their teams, but don’t have the right processes in place to make it part of the fabric of the culture. It is aspirational but not actualized. 

The Three Layers assessment of your company can help you pinpoint exactly the aspects of your job that you love, and where there is room for improvement. In our next post we will talk about who you are at work, which will be helpful as a way to assess where you may be able to lean in and change some of the things in your environment that aren’t as good as they should be.