An employee in a Saudi company talked the other day about the level of his workplace job satisfaction. He said: “The company pays great attention to the level of job satisfaction of employees in a direct way and exerts all efforts to achieve high levels of job satisfaction.”

He continued saying: Personally, there are clear indications in front of me about my job satisfaction. For example: If another opportunity came to me in another workplace with the same salary — perhaps 10 percent more — I would not leave my job here... Moreover I would advise others to work in this company...

I do not complain about my colleagues. On the contrary, I encourage and facilitate my friends to continue their work. I like to attend daily and weekly meetings because I get compliments during these meetings.

Also, my boss always stands by me without interfering with my style of work in my pursuit to bring out the targeted goals. One of the most important things that an employee searches for at his workplace is the freedom in carrying out what is required of him.

Any employee hates close supervision over the performance of his work. Achieving goals is the employee’s responsibility and he must be given freedom to achieve them in his own way. So far, this is a positive indicator of job satisfaction, the employee added.

What bothers an employee the most in the work environment is the lack of clarity of goals and the lack of clarity in utilizing the opportunities available to him to reach a higher career level.

This is a permanent dilemma for those working in the private sector and hence it is significant the appreciation of the employee as a human being and not looking at him as a machine that works all the time.

Ironically, in the degree of interest in job satisfaction, some studies point to three points that many companies do not pay attention to and consider them unnecessary and extravagant.

They are the level of lighting, the level of cooling, and the level of furniture. These points, despite their apparent marginality, directly control the creation of the general working atmosphere.

Working in an office that is too cold or too hot makes working times slow and boring. As for the level of lighting, whether it is too high or too low, it is a constant inconvenience. Regarding the poor furnishing, it reduces creativity and spreads an atmosphere of permanent gloom.

These could be marginal points on the agenda of priorities but they are essential for those who live with it on a daily basis.

Job satisfaction in any sector is the direct benchmark of the success or failure of senior management in that sector, and it creates an atmosphere of passion, creativity and healthy growth in the sector as a whole.