What you want from work
Does your work still fit you?
Look at the situations that give you energy and those that drain it. Examples from everyday work are more useful than a label when deciding what needs to change.
An original reflection exercise proposed by Jobiwan. It makes no claim to psychometric validation and does not generate a work-alignment score.
Turn expectations into observable situations
Choose three things that matter today: autonomy, learning, stability, usefulness or working relationships, for example. Explain what each means to you. Autonomy might mean choosing a method, organising your hours or contributing to decisions. Those expectations call for different changes.
Look at what you actually do
Revisit five recent situations, both satisfying and difficult. Record what you were doing and what gave you energy or took effort. Distinguish a task that was difficult once from a recurring problem. Use several observations rather than the memory of a single bad day.
Separate the activity from its environment
Would the same task suit you with different deadlines, resources or teamwork? For example, you enjoy explaining a subject, but urgent requests without preparation make it difficult. The issue to discuss may be the organisation of the work rather than the occupation.
Identify what can change
Separate an adjustment you can try yourself, an agreement you need to request and a condition you cannot change alone. Do not attribute a lack of resources to your personality. If your health is affected, see the contacts in the occupational burnout guide.
Choose an action and a review point
Choose a limited change: asking for an explicit priority, discussing the scope of the role or exploring another team. Decide what you will observe and when to discuss it again. If the mismatch concerns the activity itself, exploring a different occupation may become an option.
Five situations, concrete observations and one action
Copy this grid five times, once for each recent situation. Keep the answers in your own notes.
| Prompt | Example to adapt |
|---|---|
| Situation and observation | Project meeting: priorities changed without an explanation. |
| Expectation involved | Understanding the purpose of my work. |
| Effect on everyday work | I restarted a task without knowing what outcome was expected. |
| Possible change | Ask for the goal and success criteria before starting. |
| What I will check | Try it on the next project, then discuss it with my manager. |
Look for recurring themes and choose one action. Counting positive and negative situations does not produce a diagnosis or a verdict on your occupation.
Sources and further reading
Sources checked on 9 September 2026. The exercises are proposed by Jobiwan; they are not tests validated by the organisations cited. Linked official sources are in French.
This grid is a Jobiwan reflection exercise. It does not reproduce a scientific scale and has not been validated by a third-party organisation. Read about the approach and its limits.
Clarify what you want from work
Discover Jobiwan support to connect your expectations with your career plans and prepare your next actions.