How 'Bout A Job That Doesn't Suck?

I was in the corporate world for almost exactly ten years.  Ten very long years.  Very, very, very long years.  And one thing struck me almost immediately when I took that first gig with a large insurance company.
  Most of the jobs were pointless.
  There were a few people who did real work: programmers, underwriters, phone service people, janitors, cooks (they had five cafeterias in the building), actuaries and... that's about it.  Then there were an army of other people, project managers, supervisors, quality assurance people, and other mid-management types whose function I never really knew and whose performance I couldn't begin to measure because I don't know what they did during a day, let alone what they were supposed to do.  I'd say it was an easy 1:1 ratio of people who actually did something during a day to people whose job it was to watch other people do something during a day.  I suspect the ratio was really more like 1:2 real workers to parasites once you count in the execs and serious fuck-ups who inexplicably never lost their jobs.  And this was in a business that didn't really produce any tangible product; insurance companies reside firmly in the 'financial services' sector, and we all know what a crock of crap that is.
  No wonder that was such a miserable place, people were doing jobs with no purpose.  I know it's a little much to ask that all people follow their passion - we can't have everyone on the planet trying to be a reality TV star - but I don't think it's too much to ask that when a company hires someone to do a job they make sure that job doesn't suck.
  You can only do a job 'for the money' for so long, and admittedly for some people that's a very long time, but working for a paycheck is stultifying.  Soul-crushing.  And when you're working for a supervisor who's been there longer and has had all vitality drained from him by the mind-numbing tedium of his own job you're forced to carry some of his baggage on your journey.  No wonder workplace satisfaction is way down.
  So how do you do it?  How do you create a job that doesn't suck?  In my own experience a not-suck job comes down to three simple things:
1.  Set expectations.  People do good work when they know what they're supposed to do.  Setting solid expectations lets your employees know their limits, and lets them realize their potential.  It also makes it very easy to tell when someone isn't doing their jobs and needs a little 'coaching.'
2.  Let your employees do their jobs.  No micro-managing.  You hired them to do a job, let them do it.  Chances are good they're going to do it better than you could.  People tend to rise or fall according to an employer's expectations.  If you think you have a bunch of monkeys in the office, your employees will absolutely prove you right.  If you think you have a bunch of professionals, guess what? you will.
3.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  And it's mostly small stuff.  All those pointless jobs I was talking about?  Those are positions designed to monitor the small stuff.  Was your employee supposed to take a sick day instead of a vacation day?  Who gives a flying fuck?  It's their time off, let them use it as they want to.
   Most of all, people want to do a job that they know matters.  One that makes a difference.  Why do you think nurses and doctors work in inner city hospitals for a fraction of the pay they could get somewhere nicer?  Because they know what they do makes an immediate difference.  Same with teachers anywhere, they could get a better-paying job, but for them it's really not about the money.

The dear, departed Ray Bradbury has a great quote: 'If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it.'  Sounds simple, yes?  But almost nobody follows that advice.  If more people did, then employers might stop creating jobs that suck.