How satisfied are you in your current job?

Are you satisfied at your workplace? What factors impact your workplace satisfaction? 

If you have been an employee of any organisation, you probably can rattle off a few factors immediately. For instance: how much you get paid, how your boss treats you, whether your work is engaging, if your colleagues are nice people to hang out with, whether you’re already satisfied with life overall. 

Researchers in psychology can confirm that the following factors matter in determining workplace satisfaction: material and immaterial compensation, working environment, social atmosphere and general satisfaction with life. 

What does counselling job satisfaction look like?

Might workplace satisfaction be different for an educator than for the usual employee? The school is a special setting that has unique features, such as students, parents and the goal to educate the next generation effectively. In workplace-satisfaction research for teachers, the following factors show up: support from the school, student behaviour, autonomy in teaching, professional development and teacher self-efficacy. 

Then again, counsellors are not teachers per se. The counselling job features unique factors not included in a teaching job. For instance, counsellors need to care about where a student ends up at university, and whether the students and parents are heeding their advice (or an agent’s instead). 

Also, a counsellor at an international school setting may differ from a counsellor who is working in the school of the town he grew up in. International-school educators tend to be mobile, and location is an important factor in determining satisfaction. 

There isn’t research on workplace satisfaction for college counsellors yet, but we can still reflect on our own satisfaction, borrowing from existing research and adding these extra dimensions. 

The rest of this article will walk you through a self-assessment you can conduct to determine your own workplace satisfaction. Download the worksheet at the top of this article. Or you can simply read this article and learn about various components of workplace satisfaction. 

Step 1: Self-assessment

Step 1 asks you to assess each component that contributes to workplace satisfaction. Read through each factor on page one of the worksheet and award each a score between one and five (where one is highly dissatisfied and five is highly satisfied). For scoring purposes, some components have multiple subcomponents that may warrant different scores. Try to find an average for all the subcomponents. 

Here is an explanation of why each component is included and how it might impact on workplace satisfaction. 

Compensation

This is an obvious factor – perhaps the most salient one in our capitalist society. And it’s not too surprising – a low salary can lead to dissatisfaction, while a high salary can motivate us to change jobs. 

Of course, additional employee benefits matter greatly, too. What does your whole package include? It can vary widely, including housing, international health insurance, annual flight tickets, dependent tuition and moving allowance. 

Job security is another important factor. Doubting the school’s financial future will certainly contribute towards lower rates of satisfaction.

Work environment

The environment you work in can affect your satisfaction greatly, perhaps even more than the financial compensation. Work environment can be defined as a physical or psychological condition. For instance, walking every day into state-of-the-art facilities can certainly boost your motivation. Environment also includes intangible but equally important psychological components, such as support from leadership and whether work-life balance is an achievable goal. 

Professional development and growth

The opportunity to develop and grow as a professional can also have a profound impact on our workplace satisfaction. Does the school support your growth and development as a professional? Is there room for growth in your current capacity, or do you feel stagnant? 

Support can be defined as financial backing for professional-development opportunities (paid workshops or attending conferences), the frequency and depth of feedback and, more personally, whether there is room for growth in your current role. 

Recognition

We all want to be recognised for the hard work we put in. Is your work recognised by your stakeholders and the local community? 

How your students, parents, staff and school leadership team perceive the importance of the work you do can impact on satisfaction. Think about how receptive they are and whether you’re satisfied with the acknowledgement you’re receiving. 

A related component is recognition by the larger counselling community. College counsellors have ample opportunity to acknowledge each other in online and physical spheres, and this can buffer a possible lack of recognition in your local community. 

Relationships

How are your relationships in your workplace? Because humans are deeply social creatures, the quality and depth of our relationships can have a lasting impact on our satisfaction. 

Given our multiple roles, our relationships can vary from friendships with other counselling colleagues (if you’re in a team) to camaraderie with non-counsellor colleagues and relationships with the wider school community. Again, if you’re well connected to the global counsellor community, this can act as a positive buffer factor. 

Students

What distinguishes us from office workers is that we work closely with students – and what further differentiates us from teachers is that we need to pay close attention to their university destinations. If a high-flying student lands an offer from a highly ranked university, you’ll likely earn respect from the community. Or if you know a student is going to a fantastic institute of best fit, regardless of their renown, that can buoy your spirits for weeks.

In the same category, whether your students are receptive to your counselling can also affect your workplace satisfaction. If your students are relying on external agencies heavily, or just happen to be a difficult cohort to work with, this can reduce your satisfaction as a counsellor. 

School culture

How do the work environment and school culture differ? While the environment encompasses the physical and psychological conditions, the work culture points towards shared values, beliefs and practices that characterise an organisation. 

For instance, the integrity of the school, its vision and values, and attitude towards diversity and inclusion – and whether behaviours are consistent with these (such as treatment towards local staff) – are included in this category. 

Location

Finally, location is a crucial factor. How far is the city where you live from home? This may matter greatly if visiting family frequently is important to you. Also, what does the city provide, and does that match your preferred lifestyle? You may want a bustling cosmopolitan metropolis or you may be OK with a rural location in the middle of nowhere – it really depends on what you need, and whether what you currently have meets your needs.

Step 2: Visualising your satisfaction

After you have given a score for each category, then fill out the wheel on the second part of the worksheet. Seeing the visual filled out may give you a deeper, holistic understanding of your current situation. 

Here are some follow-up questions you can ask yourself after filling out the wheel:

• What stands out to you the most about your satisfaction wheel?
• What strengths do you see in your current work situation?
• Which areas are the least satisfying, and what specific aspects contribute to this?
• Are there any patterns or trends you notice across different categories?
• What support or resources do you need to improve your satisfaction in the identified areas?
• How can you communicate your reflections with your manager or team?
• How do you envisage an ideal work situation based on your reflections?

Using the wheel with students

As a career counsellor, you can also teach students about workplace satisfaction. Our job is not only to guide them towards an appropriate career direction, but also to help them to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life. Teaching them what leads to job satisfaction according to psychological research is in line with this.

You could also use the satisfaction wheel with students, encouraging them to think about which factors are personally important to them. For some, relationships may be very important, while facilities are less so. 

Variations of the satisfaction wheel

The satisfaction wheel can be modified for a wide range of purposes. Francis Miller at Avenues Shenzhen created a brilliant variation that aims to help students assess whether they’re ready to go abroad. 
 

The worksheet in this article was originally created for a joint presentation with Francis Miller, for the Annual China ICAC 2025 conference.