Late Night Chapter 10 Summary Thinking

        In chapter 10, Employee Satisfaction and Commitment, the correct procedures are talked about for how to correctly satisfy an employee so that they will want to be committed to the job. This chapter discusses why an employer should care whether an employee is satisfied or not. It explains what causes employees to be satisfied and dissatisfied with their jobs and how that correlates to job commitment. It goes into detail about whether an employee is a good fit for the organization or whether the tasks being performed are enjoyable, and if they aren’t, how best to deal with these situations. It describes how to measure job satisfaction and commitment via standard inventories or custom inventories. It then goes into what it is to be dissatisfied with a job and the negative effects that has such as absences and turnovers.

        Currently, this chapter hit home. I obviously do not like my job and have done nothing but complain about it, at every chance I get. I would be fired if I wasn’t allowed to complain about it. I have every intention of getting a degree and leaving the postal service for something that challenges me and makes me feel like I actually contribute something to something, actually feel like I’m making a difference and helping people. Standing around for 8 hours a day pushing mail into an up-ender and removing the empty equipment after the mail has been dumped out of the equipment is by no means what I call satisfaction. We do have job rotation if we would like it, and while it does sound like that would be a reward in itself, like working on an assembly line and being able to take the trash out, but it's not after years of only being rewarded with mundane tasks to replace mundane work. No matter how you slice that pie it's mundane all the same. It wouldn’t be half as bad if they allowed us to read a book or newspaper or something we liked personally while we were waiting for the mail to process through the machine, but we are not. We get personally reprimanded on the work floor like children, as we are supposed to stand there and wait and be watched like little children by employees who go up to be 204B’s (management then come down to keep their job bid, then go up, then come back down then go back up..etc) (and I’m supposed to look at them as authoritative, that’s a babysitter).

        When I went for this job it was because nepotism runs ramped in any government job despite what they say. Since my dad worked for them and he told me about the test, I took the test, and here I am, because at that time, 8 years ago, the postal service still boasted great advantages over most other non-career jobs. Since I was still in college it seemed like a good fit; as time went on it turned more and more into a horrible fit. Now I am counting down the days till I can leave and move on to something meaningful. I feel for the older workers there that will not leave because they feel they are too old to move on to something better, which is most of the employees there. Those of us who are younger have been actively seeking employment elsewhere and have displayed our dissatisfaction with our jobs through absenteeism. In my 8 years, I have seen FMLA forgery been rewarded with a month off and her job back with back pay, a fistfight on the work floor ended in a 3-month suspension with rehab and both their jobs back with back pay, chronic sexual harassers have been shifted around but never lost their job, people who only work 2 or 3 days a week every week continue to keep their job despite the fact that you only get 12 weeks FMLA a year, people who call off for months at a time get to clock back in when they feel like it and keep their jobs like they never missed a day, a man who got a year and a half suspension for getting arrested and he kept his job and got back pay and leave. Yes, I completely understand I just listed job security to a T, but I also described a hostile work environment where employees get away with anything and therefore do anything because of ill management and poor execution of supposed policies, lack of discipline, lack of morals and values. Therefore, is it really any wonder why I complain and have a complete lack of satisfaction and commitment to this job.

        My critical analysis of this chapter is that this chapter is also right. Social Learning theory is right, Social information processing theory is also right, and Discrepancy theory is also right. It’s also extremely correct that if an employee is dissatisfied with his/her job they will react by lowering their job performance in retaliation if they feel they cannot leave their situation due to personal reasons.