We investigate a crucial event for job satisfaction: changing one's workplace. For representative German panel data, we show that the reason why the previous employment ended is strongly linked to satisfaction with the new job. Workers initiating a change of employer experience extraordinarily high job satisfaction, though in the short term only. To investigate causality, we exploit the event of plant closure as an exogenous trigger of job switching. In this case, we find no significantly positive effect of job changes on job satisfaction. Our findings complement research on workers' well-being and concern labor market policies and human resource management.Your heart must always be ready to leave, and ready to begin again, must form new bonds with courage and without regret. Every beginning offers a magic power that protects us and helps us to endure. 1

This experiment tests for a causal relationship between the meaning of work and employees' motivation to perform weil. The study builds on an existing employeremployee relationship, adding realism to the ongoing research of task meaning. Owing to an unexpected project cancelation, we are able to study how varying the information provided about the meaning of previously conducted work-without the use of deception, but still maintaining a high level of conh•ol-affects subsequent performance. We observe a strong decline in exerted effort when we inform workers about the meaninglessness of a job already done. Our da ta also suggests that providing a supplemental alternative meaning perfectly compensates for this negative performance effect. Individual characteristics such as reciprocal inclinations and trust prompt different reactions. The data also show that the meaning of work affects workers' emotions, but we cannot establish a clear relationship between emotional responses and performance.

We use German panel data to examine how fixed-term employment affects utility derived from working. In contrast to previous research, we present evidence that working on a temporary contract lowers current job satisfaction. We discover that the honeymoon effect of a new job must be considered to reveal this result. J ob insecurity appears to be the source of dissatisfaction associated with fixed-term employment. We also consider regional unemployment and perceived employment security to shed light on the basic notion of flexicurity policies. Finally, we apply a life course perspective on employment careers to discuss the overall role of temporary employment for individua l job satisfaction .1 Here and in the following, we use the terms 'fixed -term' and 'temporary' synonymously.