page_title: Zest (positive psychology)
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Zest (positive psychology) / Work
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad, commander of the Skylab 2 mission, smiles after using the shower facility in the crew quarters of the Skylab Orbital Workshop. NASA photo SL2-02-162 in public domain.
context_page_description: In positive psychology, zest is one of the 24 strengths possessed by humanity. As a component of the virtue of courage, zest is defined as living life with a sense of excitement, anticipation, and energy. Approaching life as an adventure; such that one has "motivation in challenging situations or tasks". Zest is essentially a concept of courage, and involves acquiring the motivation to complete challenging situations and tasks. Those who have zest exude enthusiasm, excitement and energy while approaching tasks in life. Hence, the concept of zest involves performing tasks wholeheartedly, whilst also being adventurous, vivacious and energetic. It discourages the focus on the negative views of psychology. It embraces a notion that one must observe people that "live well" in order to truly understand positive psychology. Zestful people simply enjoy things more than people low in zestfulness. Zest is a positive trait reflecting a person's approach to life with anticipation, energy, enthusiasm and excitement.
  Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman developed terminology to describe human strengths. They developed a descriptive list of six human virtues comprising 24 strengths.
context_section_description: Zest can be promoted in the workplace so that workers can have a more positive approach in their life which indirectly can affect their anticipation, excitement, and energy in the workplace. Evidence from a present study that had 9803 employed adults respond to a survey on an internet site, measured zest, orientation to work as a calling, and satisfaction to work and life in general. The survey showed that for many of the employees, work was a calling and a satisfaction. Employers can use such information to increase the productivity of their employees by taking zest into consideration. The study found that professionals had the highest zest, while clerical workers and homemakers were the least zestful. Professionals and homemakers viewed their job as a calling, while clerical workers were the least likely to do so. Clerical workers displayed one of the lowest levels of zest because in most instances they viewed their work as a career, a pedestal in the hopes of acquiring status and power to find a more suitable job for themselves in the future. The results of this study follow trends observed by many other studies as well.
  Zest is speculated to be contagious just like many other strengths of character. Zest is obviously connected to, if not equal to group morale and can be a point of discussion for new studies from a positive organizational perspective with emphasis on zest. Psychologists have learned about two main ways of promoting zest within workers: physical fitness and health set the tone for zest and it can be sustained through hope and optimism. Depression is a well-documented enemy of zest, and its toll on productivity and physical health is enormous. The prevention or reduction of depression among workers might pay the additional benefit of increasing their sense that work is a calling.
  Zest is also linked to psychological well-being which is crucial in a work organization. For instance, psychological well-being predicts improved job performance, reduced absenteeism and reduced employee turnover. These are all benefits that can be explored more critically to make changes in the workplace.
  Increasing zestfulness is highly likely to increase the ability to be habitually happy.
  The results of a 2009 study on 228 schoolteacher in Hong Kong indicated that zest was often associated with positive emotions as well as increased levels of life satisfaction in teachers. It is suggested that cultivating zest in school teachers could help combat teacher burnout. Overall, zest is said to be one character strength that coincides with healthy working behaviors such as ambition, creativity, persistence and leadership, demonstrating that strengths-based interventions that cultivate zest can help improve work environments (see application for more information).It is also suggested that zest should be cultivated in the workplace in order to increase work satisfaction as well as general life satisfaction. The cultivation of zest may also decrease workplace burnout, which is the loss of productivity and enthusiasm for working.
caption: NASA astronaut Pete Conrad taking a shower aboard the Skylab space station.
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