Gosh I’m busy, working on the 2nd edition of How to get a job in a recession, I’ll be blogging more on this soon.
Yesterday I was on BBC Radio Scotland discussing how to fall in love with your job again. I was due to be on Radio Scotland a couple of weeks ago, discussing female unemployment but the interview kept getting bumped because of other news, the riots. They did say they would contact me about another interview.
On Tuesday I got a call to see if I was free to talk about falling in love with your job. They has spotted the Glamour Article which included advice from me and that had prompted the call.
I’ll often do radio interviews by phone but they wanted a good quality connection so I was booked in at BBC Radio Gloucestershire studio. I do a lot of radio interviews so I wasn’t nervous, just need to be on the ball as I’ve no idea what questions they will ask me.
I can’t remember exactly what questions I was asked, but will look to add a link so you can listen again but key points were
Some reasons people start to feel unhappy in their roles.
1. When you return from holiday it can be hard to switch back into the job, people want to stay in holiday mode. This is the time people get dissatisfied and start to look for a new job.
2. People have outgrown their job and are bored
3. Familiarity breeds contempt. They focus on the negative.
4. Thinking that there are better jobs out there, the grass is always greener
5. Too much work – people leave and the work gets shared between the remaining staff
You can decide to get another job but you still need to ‘like’ if not love your job till you do leave, and it can take time to get a new job.
1. Remember the good times and why you took on the job in the first place
2. Think of the benefits – financial, colleagues, location
3. Decide to love your job, and focus on the positive
4. Be clear on what it is that you dislike. Then you can look at how you can make small changes.
5. Job enrichment means having more meaningful work, and taking on more responsibility (Frederick Herzberg). Doing the minimum os unlikely to help in the long term.
6. Talk with your boss. Don’t moan about what you don’t like but go in there with a plan, think in advance of what you would like to do, what would make your work life more interesting.
7. Be willing to do a bit more, get involved in company wide projects, volunteer to take on an extra task, be known as the person who will attempt the difficult
8. See if you can do a sideways transfer or look into a job swap
It’s not just about the job, your job is not your life.
One way to be unhappy is to expect too much from the job. Our work persona is just one aspect of who we are. When we are in balance and when e.g. the job gets us down we still have other parts of our life – our roles as partner, sister, friend, gym fanatic, our amazing dress sense etc that help us to value ourselves.
