The 10 Most "Blissful" Places To Work

I think you'll be surprised

I've written before about the need for purpose in our work lives, and this poll proves the point again.

Four of the top 10 "blissful places to work" belong to branches of America's armed forces, and the U.S. Army barely missed out, coming in at #11.

The U.S. Air Force (#5), the Army National Guard (#7), the U.S. Marines (#8), and the U.S. Navy (#9) all rank ahead of Microsoft and Disney and your radio company.

Despite the risk, despite the longest war in U.S. history, despite low pay, despite the wrenching pain, stress and inconvenience of repeated deployments, the U.S. military has happier workers than most inside your consolidated radio company.

Let me say that again, slowly, so it sinks in:

These guys have people shooting at them and trying to blow them up and they are happier in their jobs than many of your employees and co-workers.

What's wrong with that picture?

The U.S. Army and the National Guard rank ahead of Google -- in fact, they rank #1 and #2 -- in career advancement.

It makes sense once you really think about it.

What these people do is important, and they know it. Their work has meaning and purpose beyond making a few rich guys even richer.

The friendships you forge when your life is on the line are deeper. It has often been said that in war you fight to save the buddies next to you, not for any geopolitical purpose.

And our military provides real, valuable hands-on training and education to its members, teaching skills and offering continual opportunities for career advancement that just aren't as readily available inside your company.

If you really want happier employees, if you really want to attract motivated, committed talent at every level in your organization, you could learn a thing or two from our military.

Purpose. Value. Career advancement based on training, testing and merit. Public recognition. A sense of working for something bigger than oneself, bigger than money and fame.

Adding any of that to most radio jobs would be a very good thing.