A third of our lives are spent in the workplace. Therefore, if you are miserable at work, it will impact negatively all aspects of your life. On the other hand, those who loved their jobs seem to have great personal lives. These are however the minority, a survey carried out in America found out that only around 17% fall into this category while the majority of around 83% are not happy with their jobs. Another study was conducted in America of men who had a heart attack to find out which parameter was most significant in causing them to have a second heart attack. The answer was very surprising, it is not age, weight, diet or exercise. The most important parameter in determining whether a second heart attack will occur is job dissatisfaction. The higher the level of job dissatisfaction the more likelihood that a second heart attack will occur.
The above underlines how critical our jobs are to our general wellbeing. So how can be happier at work, achieve a higher level of job satisfaction and generally love our work more? The following strategies will tell you how.
1. Tweak Your Job
People who are in love with their jobs do not just find these jobs in the market. Rather they take mediocre jobs, make some adjustments and changes and turn them into jobs that they love. This of course depends on your sphere of influence and the extent to which you are able to make changes. In a lot of jobs, you have a certain level of autonomy to decide how tasks can be carried out. Therefore, where possible tweak your job to suit your working style and you will love your job more. For example, one simple change that you can make is to do complicated and difficult tasks when your energy is high. Routine tasks can be performed when your energy level is low.
2. Interact More With Supportive Co-workers
One of the reasons people love their job is because of the love and support that they receive from their co-workers. But we can’t choose our co-workers and in any workplace there tend to be toxic co-workers. What you can do is to limit your face to face interactions with the toxic co-workers; send them more email, whatsapp messages or telephone calls. Instead schedule more face to face interactions such as meetings and discussions with supportive workers and hang out with them at the pantry or water cooler.
The quality of your interaction will impact greatly your job satisfaction. If a conflict arises try to find common ground and if possible the solutions derived will include ideas and perspectives of all parties. In this circumstances be assertive.
3. Gain Recognition For Your Work
A lot of people are unhappy at work because they feel that their contributions not being noticed and recognized by their boss or company. There are a number of ways to get recognition for the work that you done. The most important is that you update your boss regularly on status of your tasks and assignments. If you had walk the extra mile to get the job done, make sure that your boss knows about it. Another way is to be become competent in other aspects of the company which are beyond your current job scope. In this way, you will be recognized as a more senior staff compared to your peers. Lastly by increasing your visibility in the company, you will gain more recognition for your accomplishments. Do volunteer for more high profile assignments to improve your visibility. Another is to speak up during meetings and do not be afraid to give your point of views. Those who speak up during meetings will be noticed and remembered more compared to those who just keep quiet. My bonus tip is this; if you feel that you are not confident enough to share your ideas in a meeting, you can start by just giving a comment. You can say something like “I think that the idea put forward by James is a very good one and should be considered as it is a strategic factor which can lead to increase in our sales”. Just by you uttering that sentence in the meeting, you will be seen as contributing to the meeting. Where possible do not leave a meeting without saying something.
4. Play To Our Strengths
We all have our strengths, gifts and talents. There are some things that we can do better than others and we enjoyed doing them. Therefore, if at our jobs, we get to play to our strengths, we can produce better results and at the same time we will feel better about ourselves. This will improve our self-esteem and will be become more confident. The end result we are happier at work and will love our jobs more.
5. Take Responsibility For Our Happiness At Work
The majority of the people who are miserable at work often played the roles of victims. Their boss is so inconsiderate and demanding, their co-workers so uncooperative, the deadlines given unrealistic, the resources allocated insufficient and the list goes on. Once you feel you are the victim, it seems that there is not much that you can do to improve your circumstances, everything is beyond your control.
However, once you take responsibility for your own happiness at work, choices and options become clearer to you and you become empowered to take actions to improve your situation. You can for example learn to manage your boss better (perhaps by observing your co-workers), find ways to collaborate with co-workers, learn to negotiate for more time and resources and the list goes on. Know that you are your own CEO at work and you will be more empowered to take action to make yourself happy at work.
6. Having Realistic Expectations
Just as life has its ups and downs, our working life has its ups and down as well. We cannot expect our jobs to be exciting every day. There will be days where we have to do our routine tasks and also do boring but necessary paperwork. We also have to know what is expected of us, what results we are expected of us, which key performance index we need to deliver. Having realistic expectations of pay rises, promotion opportunities and company benefits will keep us grounded and happy.
7. Hunt For A Good Boss
This is something that is not easy but not impossible to do and so I am putting it last. To some a boss is an energy sucking vampire however other boss is someone who can bring you the best in you while genuinely care for you. In fact, there are a lot of people who leave good jobs because they have a bad boss. So where possible, hunt for a good boss. This may involve you changing our shift so that you work at the same shift. You may have to change to a different section, change to a different branch or even change your job so that you can work under a good boss.
So there you have it, seven strategies to love your job more. Do share in the comments section if you know of any other strategies. Be happy at work.
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Do check out my previous posts.
Consciousness Of Our Mortality
7 Strategies To Overcome Your Self-Doubts
Spreading positivity one post at a time.
Charles
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