Are Expectations Too High?

I was reading about Gen Y demographics and it lead me to this eMarketer report. Spending habits are pretty interesting.

What I found more interesting was the graph that shows total annual income as compared to other generations for 2007, 2012 and 2017. The income scale is a little lower for our Generation.

It's funny because it's also stereotypical of Gen Y to be really optimistic. Lower pay scales and positive (idealistic) attitudes might be why we're constantly known to be the job hoppers - dissatisfied with our jobs.

According to O'Neill, positive individuals hold higher initial salary expectations, and those who have lower initial salaries were more likely to change organizations in their first four years after graduation. And, participants who worked for five organizations showed lower levels of job satisfaction. "Ultimately, changing organizations did not increase satisfaction for highly positive employees. This suggest that highly positive people resilience in adjusting to new organizations cannot offset the disappointment they experience when their high expectations are not met," she adds.

Moreover, employees who aggressively pursue their ideal job are less likely to be happy than those who adjust their expectations to their current positions.

(Read: Positive thinking leads to.. job dissatisfaction?)

When the going gets tough the tough....deal with it? Pretty abrasive if you ask me. So if one study shows that you're more likely to be happy if you adjust your expectations to the job you have, do you?

Personally I think it's got to be a give and take. I think we probably do have some unrealistic expectations. However, I also think that companies need to make their own changes. (That is another blog post for another day.)

I don't think that if you're dissatisfied you have to roll over and just take it. However, I think a good thing to take from this article is that changing your job isn't always the answer.

No one thinks that they make enough money. Every once in awhile you're going to have to do a project that you don't want to do. No matter how much you love your job there are going to be good days and there are going to be days when everything hits the fan. It's trying to find a balance and if you're really unhappy to be able to communicate that with your boss or manager.

Sometimes I think working for something better within a place that maybe you're dissatisfied with and turning it into something great is more rewarding. However, I'd hate to see us lower all of our expectations and become the same problem that we're facing for the Generations after us. So don't lower your expectations - but let's not be so quick to jump ship either. We might be missing out on a great experience opportunity or a chance to prove ourselves and really make a difference from the bottom up.