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Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction in your career are not two ends of a continuous spectrum. But they are two different spectrums. You could love and hate your job at the same time. Hygiene factors determine dissatisfaction with your job and motivators determine satisfaction with your job.
Hygiene Factors:
Status
Compensation
Job security
Work conditions /Culture
Company policies
Supervisory practices
Lack of any of the hygiene factors increases employee dissatisfaction. Employers have to fix hygiene to keep employees happy and have them stay in their current job. But employees are not necessarily motivated to do their best work based only on the hygiene factors. Motivators bring the best out of your employees.
Motivators
Challenging Work
Responsibility
Recognition
Personal Growth.
Motivators are the reason why a lot of people are happy in low-paying jobs such as working in non-profit organizations, construction industries, etc.
For employers, providing good hygiene along with strong motivators will keep the employees contributing to the long-term success of the business.
For employees, choosing only the hygiene factors as the primary criteria might result in a less meaningful and impactful career. Striking a balance between hygiene factors and motivators is the key to long term career success.
Source: Frederick Herzberg published the two-factor theory in Harvard Business Review.