Do you love your job?
The answer to that question goes beyond mere job satisfaction, according to University of Alberta business professor Michelle Inness. Truly loving your job is a state of well-being closer to being "in love," she says, with a similar passion, commitment and sense of connection.
"It's an orientation to work that's more intense - deeper and all-encompassing," says Inness, co-author of a study on the topic published earlier this year in Human Resource Management.
About 80 per cent of those surveyed by Statistics Canada reported satisfaction with their jobs overall as of 2024. That measure figures prominently in the country's Quality of Life Framework, which accounts for overall levels of life satisfaction, sense of meaning and purpose, social cohesion, mental health, financial well-being and productivity.
But satisfaction isn't necessarily the same thing as loving your job, a state that likely includes fewer Canadians, says Inness.
"Existing constructs such as engagement, commitment, and satisfaction do not fully capture the depth of emotional attachment that some employees feel towards their jobs," write Inness and her co-authors.
The research team began by asking what it actually means to love your job, and whether it is always good for employees and organizations.
Deriving their conceptual framework from the American psychologist Robert Sternberg's triangular theory of love, Inness and her team define love as a "higher-order form of affective attachment" combining three traits: enthusiasm for the work itself, commitment to the organization you work for and a sense of emotional connection or bonding with colleagues.
Over a five-year period, those who said they loved their job reported lower levels of psychological strain and demonstrated a number of positive outcomes, both work-related and personal, says Inness. They include a stronger sense of citizenship, employee retention, increased innovation, and better health and personal well-being.
"In getting feedback from reviewers, we were often asked, How many people actually love their jobs anyway?'" says Inness.
True love of a job might be relatively rare, she adds, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth studying or striving for. The results of the study allowed the researchers to design a reliable "Love of the Job" scale that establishes it as "a durable, distinct predictor of both well-being and performance-relevant behaviours."
However, there are also some potential negative effects attached to loving your job. As in a relationship with another person, a deep attachment can make employees more vulnerable to manipulation or exploitation, especially when management or organizational conditions are poor, say the researchers.
In a recent article on their study in The Conversation, the team points out that a heightened sense of responsibility can be a strength in supportive environments, but "in unsupportive ones, it may make it harder to step back, set limits or recognize when demands have become unreasonable."
The next step in the team's research could be identifying what needs to be in place to nurture a healthy love of one's job, says Inness.
"We do know quite a lot about what organizations can do to set up policies and practices that create the right conditions. That includes supportive managers and leaders who give clear direction, recognize your value and provide growth opportunities, autonomy and ownership."
