Psychic Pay

I had a fascinating conversation with a colleague today about college campus culture in which we did not agree on everything. In fact, partially because of our distinct personal experiences, we disagreed heatedly in several areas. And yet, at the end of the conversation, she did something surprising. She thanked me for the discussion.

She said she had been waiting a long time for a good conversation on our campus. She thought that would have been one of the perks of working at colleges like ours, a form of psychic pay to go with a more material pay (in dollars).

We both realized perhaps people on our campus are a bit too busy and don’t have time to talk to each other. Rather, we make ourselves too busy.

It was a lovely conversation. An exceptional pay for a busy day. I now hope many/most jobs offer their employees some form of psychic joy, some forms of mental rewards, some thought-provoking escape. Many, perhaps, may have to actively seek this out – to take some time to find it with someone, or with a book. How else can they find psychic pay?

What might bring people a kind of mental payout, or a psychic joy, from their workplace? What questions might be used to start a search? Perhaps these might work:

• Why should we do what we do here?
• How can we make simple tweaks that would bring us closer to a meaningful purpose?
• How can we adapt to be more effective?

What could bring you psychic pay? What are you willing to do to get it?