What, exactly, is occupational satisfaction?

Abstract

I argue in this article that an occupationally satisfying/fulfilling (for this article I treat these two terms as synonyms) life is one in which one's engagement in occupational pursuits achieves the kind of depth, focus, and dedicated commitment that defines what the philosopher Harry Frankfurt calls “wholehearted” action (1999, p. 100). I argue further that the key feature that makes such resolute, wholehearted action possible is the value and worth of those pursuits, a dimension that has not, to my mind, received the attention and treatment it rightly deserves in the occupational science literature. For when one is untroubled by the worth of one's actions, one is free to devote all of one's attention to, and put all of one's effort behind them. That doesn't mean that being wholehearted in one's engagement in occupation is all there is to the notion of occupational satisfaction, but it does mean that in the absence of such full stop engagement in one or more of our occupational endeavors such satisfaction will prove to be practically elusive if not impossible.