Happiness from your work can come at two different times: while you are working and after you finish your work. Can enjoyment of your work and satisfaction from your work be traced to specific factors?

I’ve been doing some research and testing on the relationship between work and happiness for a new paper form. One thing that came up is Matthew B. Crawford’s new book, Shop Class as Soulcraft. Another thing that came up was Mihály Csíkszentmihályi concept of flow.

Enjoyment of Work

Flow is the state of “being in the moment,” where your actions flow effortlessly and all other concerns fade away. To enter into a state of flow, the challenge of the action must meet the edge of ability of the individual. If the challenge is too difficult, the individual will experience anxiety. If the challenge is too low, the individual will experience boredom.

After watching Csíkszentmihályi’s TED Talk, I am much more interested in the mechanics of flow than the outcome of flow. Csíkszentmihályi tells us that the brain can only process a finite amount of information at any given time. When a person is in flow, he is so concentrated on the task that he no longer has the mental capacity to take in any additional information, including concerns of the ego. You are free from worry or care because you do not have enough room for it to enter into your mind.

The importance of flow isn’t about matching skill with the appropriate challenge, but about finding a way to block worry and self consciousness from entering into your mind. Csíkszentmihályi also talks about the use of meditation to control your consciousness. When you can control your focus, you no longer need to forcefully block out your thoughts and can willfully experience joy.

Satisfaction from Work

Consuming the mind is useful for blocking out unwanted thoughts, such as worry, when you are engrossed in the action. What happens when you cease the action, giving room for your self-consciousness to enter? Consciousness is a way for you to reflect and judge your life apart from your own being. To remain happy when the action stops, you must feel satisfied with your work.

I came across Matthew B. Crawford after catching the end of the Colbert Report last week. In 2006, Crawford wrote an article called “Shop Class as Soulcraft”, which he recently expanded into a book. The premise is that “manual” and “intellectual” work have been separated into two classes and both have suffered a degredation in the meaning of the work for the sake of efficiency.

To experience meaning from your work, there needs to be a clear connection between your actions and the results of your actions for you to take ownership. Work has been made more efficient through abstraction of problems and compartmentalization of a task. Work has also lost its meaning, as fewer judgments about the work are being made by the workers.

The effect on the worker from these changes in work is that he feels like a puzzle piece, but unsure of where that piece belongs. When work becomes more theoretical, it becomes more difficult to say what he does. When work becomes more compartmentalized, it becomes more difficult to see his impact.

For a person to have satisfaction from work, he needs to have ownership of his actions and the results from his actions. Once he has ownership, he can say “this is what I have done” and feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.