The 7 Levels of Work Satisfaction: How to Escape the Grind

Work is a large percentage of most people’s lives (approximately 21.9% of a 40-year working career).

If you don’t like what you do for a living, you hate it, or it’s toxic, this can have a big negative effect on your life. It can weigh everything down and put a limit on your happiness.

On the flip side, if you like your work, love it, or can’t imagine not doing it, it can uplift your entire life.

What I just mentioned are six out of the seven levels of work satisfaction.

They are:

Toxic and/or soul-crushing.
Hate it.
Dislike it.
Tolerate it.
Like it.
Love it.
Can’t imagine not doing it.

These levels of work satisfaction apply to both employees and entrepreneurs.

I’m going to break down all seven levels so you understand them, and, most importantly, so you know how to advance to the level of work satisfaction you want to reach and escape the grind you may be in right now.

Table of Contents

Why Work Satisfaction is Crucial to Happiness

Let’s do some quick maths:

In the United States, the average retirement age is around 64 for men and 62 for women.¹

Assuming most people graduate from college and start working around age 22, this means the average working time is somewhere between 40 and 42 years. To keep things simple, let’s say most people work for about 40 years.

They work about 40 hours a week for 48 weeks each year, which equates to 1,920 hours per year for 40 years.

If we multiply those together, the average person works for about 76,800 hours during their lifetime (not including any work they might do in high school or college).

About one-third of those 40 years is spent sleeping (assuming 8 hours a night). They sleep for about 56 hours a week for 52 weeks each year, which equates to 2,912 hours per year for 40 years.

However, let’s be honest, most people are probably in bed for those 8 hours. They’re probably not sleeping the entire time (hopefully they actually sleep at least 6 hours a night).

So the average person is in bed for 116,480 hours during their 40 years of working.

In total, there are about 350,400 hours in 40 years. With 76,800 of them spent working and 116,480 hours spent in bed, that leaves 157,120 hours not working or in bed (about 44.8% of the total time available).

That’s all free time though, right??

Wrong…

A significant portion of that time is spent commuting to and from work, grocery shopping, cooking food, eating, showering, taking care of family, doctor’s appointments, self-care (hopefully), and other life tasks, like managing finances, car maintenance, etc.

By the time most people finish taking care of their life responsibilities, they’re left with maybe a couple of hours a day of free time during the week, plus whatever free time they have on the weekends.

Let’s say that this is the time available to enjoy your life outside of work, taking care of your responsibilities, and sleeping.

Even though work takes up 21.9% of the average person’s 40-year working life, leaving almost 80% to do other things, another 33.2% is spent in bed (55.1% in total).

That’s more than half the time gone just working and sleeping.

And another significant portion is taken up by other life responsibilities.

So let me ask you this:

What if you don’t like what you’re doing with the time you spend working?

What if you hate it? What if your work stresses you out, drains your energy, and sucks the life out of you?

Then you spend most of the rest of your time sleeping and taking care of your responsibilities, leaving little time and energy to enjoy the rest of your life.

What’s this going to do to your overall life satisfaction?

If most people only worked for a couple of hours a day during the week, it wouldn’t be so bad, but by the time most people finish working and taking care of their responsibilities, most of their day is done.

I know that sounds super sad, but that’s the reality of how most people’s work lives unfold (and it’s a big reason why I chose not to go down the typical job path most people do).

This is why it’s more important than ever to do work that makes you happy if you want to live a life that makes you happy. The percentage of life that work takes up for most people is just too big.

If you don’t like your work, you’re not going to like a significant percentage of your life, and it will weigh down the other areas.

On the other hand, if you like your work, you’re going to like a significant percentage of your life, and it will lift up the other areas of your life.

The more you like your work, the more you will like your life.

While the opportunity for your work to drag down your life is significant, the potential for your work to uplift your life is equally high.

The bottom line is this:

If you don’t like or love what you do for a living, it’s tough to like or love your life. If you like or love what you do for a living, it’s easy to like or love your life.

This is one of the biggest reasons why being happy in your work can be life-changing, and why work satisfaction is one of the most important things for someone to prioritize.

How to Prioritize Your Work Satisfaction

Most people do not prioritize their work satisfaction when choosing which work to do.

They choose careers based primarily on what their parents want them to choose, how much money they can make, or both.²

This leads to stress, burnout, and dissatisfaction down the line.³

Prioritizing work satisfaction means making holistic considerations about how each career path could affect your happiness, health, and other parts of your life.

Here are some questions to ask yourself that can have deep and lasting impacts on which career paths you consider:

Am I going to enjoy this career?
Will I have the freedom I want?
Do I care enough about it to do a good job and strive for excellence?
Will I be paid well enough, or will I feel overworked and underpaid?
Will I have the time and energy to enjoy the rest of my life, or will I be tired and burned out most of the time?
Will I be able to take care of my health and well-being, or will I sacrifice it for this career?
Is this the type of work environment I want to be a part of, or is it toxic and draining?

These types of questions rarely come up when wide-eyed and excited college students are reading through the list of degrees their universities offer, trying to decide what to do.

A study by Intelligent found that only 46% of college students surveyed currently work in their field of study.⁴ This means that most college graduates do not work in the field they spent thousands of dollars and years studying for.

Most students pay thousands of dollars to get a degree, only to do something else after graduating.

A degree has nothing to do with the actual work you’re going to do when you graduate and go into a field related to that degree.

I experienced this during my senior year of college when I got an internship in my major’s field.

I loved what I studied (economics), but the work was nothing like the subject. The work was dry and boring, and I quickly knew that I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life.

So after graduating, I immediately started an online business, which was much more aligned with my answers to the questions above.

Making holistic considerations about which work to do or where to work isn’t just for college students. It’s for everyone.

The nature of your work will affect a large portion of your life, no matter what age or stage of life you’re in. Happy people tend to be happy in their work, and vice versa.

Prioritizing your work satisfaction is about prioritizing how your work fits in with the rest of your life and making decisions based on both your short-term happiness and your long-term goals.

The 7 Levels of Work Satisfaction

Let’s get into the seven levels of work satisfaction so you can start understanding what level you’re at now and how to progress.

1) Toxic and/or Soul-Crushing

A poll by the American Psychological Association found that nearly 1 in 5 workers say their workplace is very or somewhat toxic.⁵

A study by CareerPlug found that 72% of employees have left a job due to a toxic work environment, while 51% plan on leaving their current job because of toxicity in their workplace.⁶

A toxic work environment can be characterized by any of these factors:

High amounts of internal conflict.
Discrimination, bullying, harassment, etc.
Distrust.
Low morale.
Excessive workloads and burnout.
Lack of professional/personal boundaries.
Abuse of power.
And more.

If your work environment is toxic, you probably know it. It isn’t hard to see or feel.

If you dread going into work each day because of the negativity you might experience there, even if you like the work itself, your work environment is probably toxic. This can be incredibly draining and detrimental to one’s health and well-being.

On the same level as toxic, I include “soul-crushing” work.

This is the type of work that is so against who you are as a person and what you want that you simply cannot do it. It hurts your soul too much.

Even if the work environment isn’t toxic, but you despise the work itself or the lifestyle it forces you into, you could describe your work as “soul-crushing.”

If your work is toxic, soul-crushing, or both, this is about as bad as it can get. It’s the lowest level of work satisfaction, and for most people, it’s simply unsustainable. You can’t stay in it.

At some point, something has to change, and you need to get into a better situation for your health and well-being.

2) Hate It

Next, we have the people who hate their work.

It might not be a toxic work environment, and the work might not be so bad as to metaphorically “crush your soul,” but you still hate it for a lot of reasons:

Maybe your bosses are micro-managing assholes.
Maybe the work sucks.
Maybe your coworkers are a pain in the ass to deal with.
Maybe you’re overworked and underpaid.
Maybe you’re stressed out all the time.

Whatever the reasons, people in this situation will quickly tell you they hate their work when you ask them how it’s going. It’s probably one of the foremost things on their mind because their work is weighing down their life so much.

They may have a wonderful family, be in good health, have all the creature comforts they want, and have ample money in the bank, but they’re still not happy.

They try. They do their best to be grateful for all the good things they have in their lives. But when Monday morning rolls around again, they simply can’t fake it.

They f*cking hate their work and would do practically anything to get out of it. Yet, they feel stuck.

It’s a low place to be.

3) Dislike It

Moving on to Level 3, we have the people who dislike their work.

These people don’t work in a toxic environment, and the work isn’t so bad that it’s soul-crushing or they hate going into work every day.

But they still don’t like it.

It’s not what they want to be doing, they don’t care about it at all, and they probably don’t feel a sense of significance within their role.

They’re probably not doing something that’s truly suited to both their skills/talents and their interests. It’s just out of alignment with who they are as a person.

The problem with being in Level 3 is that you don’t like it enough to do a good job, but you also don’t hate it enough to quit.

So you probably put up with it for years on end, complaining all the time but never taking any big actions to do something else.

Related: The Action Formula

4) Tolerate It

In the middle of the pack, we have the people who just tolerate their work.

If you were to imagine a color for this, it would be grey. Bland. Boring. Meh. Whatever.

No fun. No excitement. No joy. No passion. No interest.

No toxicity or hate either, but definitely no love.

It’s nothing really. Just work. Day in, day out. Clock in, clock out.

Trading your time and energy for money.

You go because you feel like you have to. You talk to your coworkers so you don’t seem like an asshole, but you couldn’t care less about what they have to say.

You just tolerate every dry, boring minute of it, doing your duty until it’s time to go home and wait to hop back on the hamster wheel again tomorrow.

What a drag, literally.

Similar to Level 3, the big problem here isn’t the work. The problem is that it’s not bad enough to force you to make a change. You’re too comfortable.

So you stay in it for far too long, watching life pass you by from inside your gilded cage of monotony.

5) Like It

Finally!

When we get to Level 5, we start liking our work. It’s about damn time.

In Level 5, your work starts becoming enjoyable. It’s not the greatest thing ever. There are still parts of it you don’t like or wish were better, but you still like it. It’s still good.

It’s still better than the majority of other things you could be doing, or, perhaps, what you were doing in the past.

You like your coworkers. Your bosses have their moments, but they’re okay. The work is suited to your skills and talents. You’re good enough at it that you feel valued and secure. And you have enough interest in it to make it enjoyable.

Sometimes it’s fun, even.

Sometimes…

Other times, it does stress you out. Quite frequently, actually.

Every once in a while, your boss has a temper tantrum and makes your life a living hell for a few weeks.

You still like the work, but there are periods where you’re overworked, you feel like you were overlooked for a promotion, or one of your coworkers steals your thunder. These periods can be tough to deal with.

Even though you like it, you could still rattle off a long list of things that could and should be better. Pretty obvious things, actually.

You’re still grateful because it’s better than most people’s situations, but there’s a part of you that wants more and would take the opportunity in a heartbeat if it showed up at your doorstep.

6) Love It

At Level 6, we finally hit a level of work satisfaction that most people are truly striving for in their hearts.

The only problem is that most people think it’s a pipe dream or a fantasy, so they stay stuck in one of the levels below and never take action to advance.

When you love your work, there’s so much alignment between you and whatever you’re doing. It hits the mark on so many levels.

It’s suited to your strengths, gifts, talents, and abilities. You love the work itself. It’s fun for you. You care about what you’re doing and the impact it has.

Your work days don’t drag on like your least favorite class in school. Sometimes, they fly by because you are so engrossed in what you are doing that you hardly even notice the time.

You don’t need a bunch of productivity hacks or someone breathing down your neck to get you to do the work. You’re self-motivated because you actually enjoy it.

Who needs motivation to do something they love? It’s already embedded in the activity itself.

No amount of productivity hacks can overcome a lack of passion and caring for the work itself. The more you care about what you do, the less anything can stand in your way of doing it to the best of your ability.

You will go as far as you want to, achieve as much as you want to achieve, because you actually give a sh*t. No other level of work satisfaction below Level 6 even comes remotely close to this.

What stops people from reaching this level of work satisfaction isn’t that it’s impossible. It’s that they’re willing to tolerate lower levels of work satisfaction.

We rise or fall to the level of what we are willing to tolerate in our lives. Our work is no exception.

The vast majority of people are willing to tolerate all the crap that comes with Levels 1-5, so they do.

The ones who are not willing to tolerate that crap do everything in their power to put themselves in a situation like Level 6 or 7.

Toxic bosses? Hell no!
Soul-crushing work? F*ck that!
Coworkers, bosses, a job, or a business I hate? No way!
Disliking what I do for a living? Yeah right!
Living in a work purgatory, just tolerating every bland, boring day? I’d rather quit!
Liking my work but still dealing with a bunch of stupid BS? I’m out of there ASAP!

Loving what I do for a living, where I work, and who I work with? Now we’re talking.

7) Can’t Imagine Not Doing It

Yes, there’s a level of work satisfaction above loving it. You can achieve something even higher than that.

I call this level “Can’t Imagine Not Doing It,” and it’s exactly that.

There might be many things you would love doing, but there might only be a few things (or even just one) that you couldn’t imagine not doing because they’re so aligned with who you are as a person.

When people look up to others for how much they enjoy their work and have found their calling in life, this is the level those people have reached. They’ve reached Level 7.

This doesn’t mean they’re going to do that thing their whole life. They can do other things in the future.

But for the time being, and for this stage of their lives, they couldn’t imagine doing anything else. They’re doing their “thing.”

They’re in such a state of flow that their work hardly feels like work anymore. It’s just what they do.

These are the people who came up with the slogan, “Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.” To which people at Level 5 and below all reply, “How?!?!”

Their identities, personality traits, strengths, abilities, and passions all align perfectly with their chosen profession. They were made for it, or they developed themselves into the version of themselves who’s made for it.

It might’ve been something they were called to do from birth, something they found later in life after years of stumbling around, or something they finally took action on when they built the courage to.

No matter how they got to it, they can’t imagine doing anything else.

They might be capable of other things. They might’ve had other career paths in mind before they started their current one. They might be passionate about or love other things.

But this is “the one.” They can’t imagine doing anything else, and they don’t plan on stopping any time soon.

If you want to be as happy as possible in your work and your life, this is the level of work satisfaction to aspire to.

Exercise: Which Level of Work Satisfaction Are You At?

Now that you have a solid overview of the seven levels of work satisfaction, let’s ground things down and determine which level you’re at in your work right now.

Just by reading the section above, you might already know. Just in case you don’t, or you want further clarification, here’s an exercise to help you:

If you had to choose how you feel about your work, which would you choose:

I dread it every day (level 1).
I hate it (level 2).
I don’t like it (level 3).
It’s whatever (level 4).
I like it (level 5).
I love my work (level 6).
I can’t imagine not doing what I’m doing (level 7).

Whichever option you choose is your current level of work satisfaction.

If you feel like you’re in the middle of one of the options, that’s okay. You still know where you are relative to the other levels.

Next, which level of work satisfaction do you want to reach? Which level speaks most to you and excites you the most? Which level would change your work life and have the most positive effect on the rest of your life?

Finally, when do you want to achieve that level of work satisfaction by? And how are you going to get started taking action toward it?

Write down your answers to these questions in clear detail. Then make a plan to increase your work satisfaction and start taking action.

How to Achieve The Highest Levels of Work Satisfaction

Achieving the level of work satisfaction you want to reach is a personal journey, but I want to leave you with some general advice that will help you get started.

1) Be Unwilling to Tolerate Anything Less Than What You Want To Experience

If you are unwilling to tolerate anything less than what you want, by default, you will experience what you want to experience.

It might not happen immediately, but it will happen eventually as you continue saying “no” to what you don’t want and “yes” to what you do.

Be unwilling to tolerate the crap you may have been putting up with in your work so far.

Be unwilling to be treated the way you may have been treated until now.

Be unwilling to settle.

Then…

2) When You’re Ready, Take Decisive Action and Don’t Look Back

This process may require you to tap into your courage and act despite your fears and concerns.

It may require you to change jobs, shut down your business, or start a new career path.

These decisions are rarely easy, but sometimes you must close one door so other doors can open for you.

So, when you’re ready to move forward, take decisive action and do not look back. Only look to where you intend to go.

A part of you might want to go back to your old comfort zone, but keep your vision in front of you.

It will inspire you to keep going until you make it a reality.

3) Know Your Worth

Lastly, always, always, always know your worth and don’t settle for anything or anyone who does not see it and appreciate it.

This applies in and out of work.

Know your value and do not settle for less than being adequately compensated for it or for being treated fairly.

Go where you are respected and appreciated, and you will love what you do so much more.

Footnotes

26+ Essential Retirement Statistics – Zippia
The Impact of Parental Influence: Career Edition – Joblist
Moodle’s State of Workplace Learning Report – Moodle (Conducted by Censuswide)
1 in 7 College Grads Earn Less Than the Poverty Threshold – Intelligent
APA poll reveals toxic workplaces, other significant workplace mental health challenges – American Psychological Association
2022 Toxic Work Environment Report – CareerPlug

Why Work Satisfaction is Crucial to Happiness

How to Prioritize Your Work Satisfaction