Effects of compulsory public service on job satisfaction and loneliness in Turkish civil servants

Turkish government mandates compulsory service for public servants in Eastern Turkey. The compulsory public service cities are different from others in terms of their socio-economic conditions as well as socio-cultural structures. As such, these cities offer limited opportunities and an unusual cultural environment for newcomers such as those on compulsory service which will likely impact job satisfaction and loneliness. In order to examine these relationships, we conducted a survey with three hundred sixteen civil servants in Bitlis. Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale are used to measure the job satisfaction and loneliness levels, respectively. The findings of this study indicate that income, occupational sector, and social environment, occupational satisfaction, and income advantages provided by Bitlis have remarkable effects on job satisfaction scores, while gender, relationship status, income, occupational sector, the presence of people already known before coming to Bitlis, social environment advantage, and participating in social activities have significant effects on loneliness scores. In addition, negative correlation between loneliness and job satisfaction scores shows that as the job satisfaction score increases, the loneliness score decreases.