Personality and job satisfaction

What does the research say about personality and job satisfaction?

Two colleagues in the same role, on the same pay, with the same manager, can report very different levels of satisfaction. The clearest summary of why comes from a meta-analysis of 334 correlations drawn from 163 independent samples (Judge et al., 2002). It organised the evidence using the five broad dimensions that emerged from decades of lexical research rather than from any single study (Goldberg, 1993).

• Neuroticism had the strongest link, at an estimated true-score correlation of -.29 with overall job satisfaction. People higher in Emotional Stability, which is the same dimension read the other way, reported being more satisfied.
• Conscientiousness came next, at .26, and Extraversion close behind at .25.
• Agreeableness related weakly, at .17.
• Openness to Experience was essentially unrelated, at .02. Curiosity and imagination say almost nothing about whether someone likes their job.
• Only Neuroticism and Extraversion generalised consistently across studies. The other three appear in the pooled figure without holding steadily from sample to sample.
• The five together reached a multiple correlation of .41, which the authors take as evidence that traits are a dispositional source of satisfaction at work.

Which personality traits are happiest at work?

On these numbers, the steadiest and the most outgoing, in that order. The table sets the five out together.

The last column matters as much as the numbers. Generalising means the relationship turned up dependably in sample after sample rather than only in the average. Emotional Stability and Extraversion did that. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness varied more between studies than a stable effect should, which usually means something about the job, the country or the era is moderating it.

What do those numbers mean in plain terms?

That people higher in Emotional Stability and Extraversion tend to report more satisfaction, in most jobs, and that the tendency is modest. A correlation near .29 is a loose slope through a wide cloud of people. Plenty of calm extraverts are miserable at work, and plenty of worried introverts are glad to get to their desk.

It also does not mean the job is irrelevant. Nothing in this evidence says pay, workload, a decent manager and a sense of being useful stop mattering, and the five traits together leave most of the difference in satisfaction unexplained even at a multiple correlation of .41 (Judge et al., 2002). Fit is the part traits can speak to. The same open-plan floor is a good day for one temperament and a tax on another, and the same unstructured brief is freedom to one person and dread to the next.

A trait profile describes what you bring to any job; the job describes the rest. Neither is the whole answer.

Is this the same as being happy in general?

It overlaps a great deal, and the overlap is the honest caveat on the whole topic. The two traits that predict job satisfaction most dependably, Neuroticism and Extraversion, are also the pair long tied to subjective well-being in general (Costa & McCrae, 1980). Someone satisfied with life will usually report being satisfied with work, and part of what looks like a workplace finding is a person-level finding in workplace clothes.

That is not a reason to ignore the result. It is a reason to be careful about what you conclude from your own answers. If your satisfaction at work is low and your satisfaction with most things is also low, changing employer may move less than it promises. The Big Five and happiness goes through the well-being evidence on its own terms.

Does personality cause job satisfaction?

The evidence cannot settle that, and it is worth saying rather than glossing over. These are correlations, and in most of the underlying studies the same person reported both their personality and their satisfaction, often on the same afternoon. Someone in a low mood will describe both their temperament and their job more darkly, which inflates a relationship without either one causing the other.

The authors of the meta-analysis read the pattern as evidence that traits are a dispositional source of satisfaction at work (Judge et al., 2002). That is a reasonable interpretation of a consistent result, and it is an interpretation. Causal claims need designs this evidence does not have.

What can you actually change?

More than the correlations suggest, because none of the levers below requires becoming a different person.

• The environment, before the job title. Much of what people call a bad job is a mismatch of pace, noise, autonomy and how much of the day is spent with other people. Those features vary more between two teams in one company than between two industries, and they are what a trait profile can speak to.
• The shape of the role. Most jobs have give in them: which meetings you attend, how much of the work is solitary, whether the brief arrives written or spoken. Small adjustments to the parts that cost you most often return more than a change of employer.
• Habits and skills, which respond faster than traits. Conscientious behaviour, not a Conscientiousness score, is what predicts performance across occupations (Barrick & Mount, 1991), and behaviour responds to arrangements: a shorter list, a visible deadline, a colleague expecting the draft.
• The traits themselves, slowly. A systematic review of intervention studies found trait measures shifting by about a third of a standard deviation over roughly six months, largest for Emotional Stability, and drawn mostly from therapy and counselling trials (Roberts et al., 2017). Can personality change? sets out what that does and does not promise.

It helps that traits predict occupational attainment about as well as socioeconomic background or measured ability does (Roberts et al., 2007). Real, and modest, is the right expectation to bring to your own profile.

How does Wellington cover satisfaction at work?

Wellington is a science-based personality assessment from Therabot Labs LLC. It measures personality as continuous traits, built on the Big Five and HEXACO models, and writes the results back as a personal report rather than a type.

The free Snapshot is 60 questions and about 7 minutes. It scores 6 dimensions, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness to Experience, Honesty-Humility, and returns a percentile and a written page for each, so the two dimensions that carry this finding, Emotional Stability and Extraversion, are both covered. The first ten questions are answered before anything is asked of you; after question ten you sign in with an email so answers are saved and results can be shown. There is no card.

The Wellington Membership, $4.99 a month, adds the Portrait, 336 questions in 4 chapters, to reach 90 traits: every facet beneath the six dimensions and all 24 VIA character strengths, then continues toward all 255 traits across eight domains, and that is where working life is measured directly rather than inferred: Productive Work Engagement under work, and Reading Practice, Self-Improvement Practice, Intellectual Engagement under learning. Wellington is not a career test and does not name occupations for you; career personality tests explains what does that job.

Each trait is the average of several statements on a five-point accuracy scale, reported as a percentile against the reference sample, in one of three bands: Quiet below the 30th, Balanced to the 70th, High above. The bands and the Portrait names exist to make the result easier to talk about; the percentile is the measurement, and it is always shown alongside. Norms are provisional until the norming sample is complete, and the methodology shows how the writing works. Wellington is a wellness tool for reflection, not a medical or psychological diagnosis, and it does not replace care from a qualified professional. It is not built for hiring, selection or promotion, and you can export or delete your data at any time.

Questions people ask

Which personality traits are happiest at work?

Lower Neuroticism and higher Extraversion, on the meta-analytic evidence. Job satisfaction correlated -.29 with Neuroticism and .25 with Extraversion, and those were the only two relationships that generalised consistently across studies (Judge et al., 2002). Conscientiousness at .26 was similar in size but less consistent, and Openness at .02 was essentially unrelated.

Does Openness to Experience affect job satisfaction?

Barely. Its estimated true-score correlation with overall job satisfaction was .02, effectively zero (Judge et al., 2002). Curiosity and imagination may well shape which work you seek out and how you feel about a particular task, but they do not predict whether someone reports being satisfied with their job overall.

If my personality predicts my satisfaction, is changing jobs pointless?

No. The five traits together correlate .41 with job satisfaction, which leaves most of the difference to everything else: the work, the pay, the manager, the commute, the people (Judge et al., 2002). What the finding suggests is that if dissatisfaction follows you across several roles, the more useful adjustments may be to habits, environment and the shape of the work rather than the employer.

Can I become more satisfied at work by changing my personality?

Slowly, and only a little. A systematic review of intervention studies found trait measures shifting by about a third of a standard deviation over roughly six months, largest for Emotional Stability and drawn mostly from therapy and counselling trials (Roberts et al., 2017). Changing the environment, the shape of the role and the habits around the work usually returns more, sooner.