Of those on the
good side of that statistic, only half are said to be satisfied with
their current place of employment. Even fewer can say they are
passionate about their job. For an increasing number of people then,
having a bad case of the Mondays is a weeklong event.
Why are so many people unsatisfied with their job? Many times people will say some variation of the following:
1. I don’t get any recognition for the work I do.
2. My boss and/or coworkers are jerks.
3. This job is a dead end.
While
these are valid complaints, they won’t help you become passionate about
your job. To do that starts with reflecting on the following questions:
1. Where does your validation come from?
It’s said
that God is more concerned with who you are becoming than with what you
do for a living. In light of this, what measures are you using to
define job success, and most importantly, who are you looking at to
tell you if you are successful? If your answer to the second question
is anyone other than the God who loves you without conditions, you will
eventually be disappointed. While most employers offer recognition
programs and performance reviews as a temporary ego boost, lasting job
satisfaction will come only when you direct your need for affirmation
to the right place.
2. How well do you know your boss and/or coworkers?
I’m
convinced that an inverse relationship exists between how much you hate
your job and how well you know your colleagues. I don’t mean that if
you bring cupcakes to the office and join the party planning committee
you will immediately start loving your job. I’m saying that it’s hard
to hold a grudge against your micromanaging boss when you have been
walking with her through a bitter divorce. And you can’t get too mad
over your health insurance premium increasing when the coworker you
babysit for was just laid off. Even if it means talking to the
maintenance guy with the awkward lingering handshake or the woman in
accounting who steals all of your purple paperclips, at some point you
have to make yourself vulnerable and invest in the lives of others. You
may not learn to love your job, but you can learn to love your
coworkers.
3. Are you doing anything to prepare for a change?
While the economy doesn’t currently lend itself to job hunting, that
shouldn’t stop you from preparing for the future. If you know you are
meant for something different, what skills are you building right now
to make a change? It may mean sticking out your current job to gain
experience, finishing a degree, learning a second language or writing
that business plan you’ve been toying with for years. My friend John
has no job, but loves baseball passionately. He loves it so much that
he has spent the better part of the last two years trying to get a full-time job in scouting. If “atta boys” could pay the bills, John’s past
advice to professional scouts could buy a senate seat in Illinois. He
leaves this week for the Dominican Republic, where he will live at a
baseball academy to scout. Though he isn’t getting paid and doesn’t
know if it will translate into a full-time gig, he has 20 pages of
notes ready to go for a screenplay about the cartel-like buying and
selling of baseball players in the third world as a backup plan.
Two of the biggest myths in our culture are that the only
worthwhile professions are the glamorous ones, and that you are less
valuable if you aren’t calling the shots. It’s easy to get wrapped up
in these feelings of entitlement and anxiousness about the future, and
I often do. But then I’ll hear a story like the following that
instantly rearranges my priorities.
My organization cares
for abused and neglected children across Florida and internationally.
On a recent trip to Russia, our staff partnered with a local orphanage
for children with AIDS. They were able to
offer basic hygienic advice that will have an immediate impact saving
hundreds of lives. As I let the implications of that story sink in, I
could feel the weight of my selfishness press down upon me like a ton
of TPS reports. However indirect my role
was, I need reminders like this. It is important to see that when my
priorities don’t line up with the world’s needs, I am the one who
needs to adjust.
As Christians, we have to get to the point
where, as Paul says, we are content regardless of our circumstances.
Coming from a man who suffered beatings, false imprisonment and
constant persecution, Paul was able to remain not just content, but
passionate through it all. Paul’s life implies that in regards to
passion, we have a choice to make, and that our external situation has
very little to do with it.
There are a lot of things you
can’t control about your job, but your attitude toward it isn’t one of
them. When you choose to do your job creatively, with integrity and in
a way that gives life to others, you can find passion in even the most
mundane occupations. But if you are content in hating your job until
something better comes along, just be sure to keep it to yourself.
Remember that at 4.1 to 1, choosing to be passionate about the job you
have is looking more and more like a good option.
