Why do we work? The obvious answer is to pay the bills and make ends meet...

If you were to win the lottery this week (assuming anyone still plays it) would you hand in your notice at work and live a life of leisure in the sun for the rest of your days? When given the choice of palm trees, yacht and condo in the Caribbean or the daily commute and office routine, many would jump at the chance to leave it all behind.

However, keeping the bank manager at bay isn't the only reason that we go to work. A job can be fun, it should be a challenge and provide satisfaction.

Last month in our 'Toe in the water survey' we asked you 'What gives you job satisfaction?' The results from which can be seen in the graph below:

Graph showing the priority placed on different reasons for satisfaction at work:

Thank you to the hundreds of people who took the time to fill in the survey as you see the results prove to be very interesting.

As you can see there is very little seperating the top reasons for job satisfaction. 21% of you consider salary to be most important, it was the no.1 reason. When we are paid adequately for our work we feel valued and appreciated. Money troubles are a common cause of stress and can cause pressure in our private lives, these can both be reduced if we can balance our often ambitious expenditure with our incoming wage.

The small margin between the top results shows that salary alone is NOT the only reason for work satisfaction. Working environment is also very important with 20% of votes. This can include the physical surroundings at work such as decor, temperature, smell (who wants to be located near a sewage treatment works!) and social atmosphere. We spend a large proportion of our lives at work and so we want to be in comfortable, pleasant surroundings.

18% of you consider challenge at work to be most important. We all aspire to be the master of our art, however when we are no longer challenged it may be time to move on. We need to be stimulated either creatively, intellectually or psychologically in our work, doing the same tasks day in day out without a spark of dynamism or variation could become mundane.

15% of you think that career progression is important to your satisfaction at work. Like a relationship that isn't going anywhere, having a job with no prospects can be frustrating especially if you are ambitious. It can be fun for a while but ultimately not wholly satisfactory.

At the lower end of the scale 12% of you consider interaction with colleagues to be a major part of your happiness at work, 8% of you consider training and 6% consider fun to be important.

As you see there is very little margin between the results and it seems that it is not one thing alone that brings about job satisfaction. It is the combination of factors that makes us happy at work.

It is a balance that employers must be aware of if their companies are to prosper. Let's hope that more companies get the balance right so that more people enjoy their work.

If you would like to comment on the results please send us your messages.