Grateful For Your Job, But Still Not Happy

The following is a brief excerpt from "The Chronicles of a Hardworking Slacker". It's an email sent from the main character Madison Fox to her best friend and coworker, Kimberley Jacobs.

I believe we all have moments when we feel just like Madison. We don't want to feel ungrateful about having a job. At the same time, how much weight should we place on "being happy" at work?

From: Madison Fox
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 5:20 PM
To: Kimberley Jacobs
Subject: RE: RE: Question: KM Solutions Contract

Not funny. : ( And it’s not just a job. This is my life, and he’s ruining it. It’s hard enough getting out of bed every day to go to a good job. But when I’m trying to relax or go to sleep, I’m thinking about what happened at work that pissed me off. Then I get mad at myself because it’s my personal time and I’m thinking about work. I know that Richard isn’t losing sleep over all the things he does to me. When I wake up, I feel great until I realize that I have to come here. I just don’t even want to be here anymore. And don’t let it be a Sunday evening. My whole positive vibe that I felt over the weekend literally comes crashing down. I wish I could be grateful just to have a job. Especially now when it’s so hard for people to find a decent job that pays well. I’m not trying to be a complainer, but I just feel stuck, as though I don’t have any options. I’m really trying hard to be grateful. But being grateful doesn’t mean you have to suffer and just take what’s given to you … or does it? I’m thinking too much.

I believe that there has been a generational shift regarding our approach to work. With each passing generation, it appears that we increasingly integrate "what we do for a living" into our vision for overall personal fulfillment. In other words, more and more people view the key to their success as having a job or career that they truly enjoy.

It's interesting because when I was growing up, I don't ever recall my older family members discussing how happy they were to go to work. I think they were busy just trying to meet basic needs. Even if they hated it, they were happy to have a job that put food on the table every night. Happy to provide for their kids. Happy that everyone had a safe and clean house to live in. Happy that they could buy clothes and shoes for their kids. Happy that they could put their kids through college. The achievement of these basic needs was sufficient to ensure a certain level of happiness within them. The job was just a means to achieve these greater successes.

Of course we have more choices for jobs and careers now than our grandparents and parents. With significant advances in technology, and more opportunities for us to obtain higher education, society has evolved to embrace this more holistic approach to choosing a career.

The bottomline is that we spend at least 8 hours a day working either for someone else or trying to build our own business. So why spend that time feeling miserable and hating what you do? I agree. But I also say take care of your responsibilities. Be grateful for where you are right now, even if you aren't 100% happy there. When you have the opportunity to move on to something better, move forward. If you don't see the opportunities to progress, then plan ahead. Do you need more education, more experience, better contacts to network? Whatever it is, plan and continue to be thankful for this moment.

In the meantime, don't beat yourself up every second because you don't have your "dream job." We could all take a lesson from our elders and focus a little attention on the family members who benefit from us working, when we are in those difficult moments.

Tanya Michelle

New Attitude for 2010

So it's the same story every year. Each January, I re-evalute my career. I consider if it's too late for a career change. A change to something more fulfilling. More in line with my dreams to be a writer. And somehow, I just manage to get sucked back in to the same rat race that has become my current career. What makes it most challenging, are the people that I work with. Not necessarily my coworkers. But people that I have to work with in other parts of the organization. Take for instance last week. I received a new assignment that requires that I work with a new project manager. The new project manager called me in a panic and I think he used the phrase, "lean heavily upon you" several times in our discussion. That is hardworking slacker terminology for, "I will not be doing much." He doesn't even know what he has to do yet. And without even reading the background information, just calls me up to complain that he has received this assignment and is "too busy to figure out what he has to do."

Now the old Tanya would just jump right in and offer to help and do the job of two people. But not this year. As far as I know, I didn't get a pay raise to do additional work. And even if I did, it should be work that's assigned to me. Not work that is assigned to somebody else. This is my struggle. Finding that balance between doing enough to be considered a hardworking employee, without killing myself or having others attempt to dump their work onto me.

I wonder if there are others out there that deal with the same challenge. I don't mind working hard. I just don't like being manipulated into doing someone else's work on top of my already heavy workload.

I'd like to hear your stories. If you are a hardworking employee that has learned a few survival tactics, please share! If you are a hardworking slacker, then why? Please explain?

Tanya Michelle, Author
The Chronicles Of A Hardworking Slacker
http://www.hardworkingslacker.com