4 Ways to Feel Good About Your Work
2009 April 23
Everyone has days on the job where the level of office politics is too high or the satisfaction is too low. How can we bring about good changes in the workplace if we’re not motivated?
Below are some ideas for kickstarting your satisfaction and motivation.
- Keep a customer focus. If you work in an environment with a call center or customer service group and you’re not part of it, look into spending a lunch or break listening to calls or reading emails. You might even be able to answer some. It’s amazing how being reminded of why you’re in business can make all kinds of politics and tedium bearable and more meaningful.
- Go for a walk. While you’re out, clear your mind, listen to the birds, take deep breaths, and gradually let yourself start thinking about your work again. Nine times out of ten, you’ll approach your work with new clarity afterwards and you’ll be able to bring positivity to your work.
- Do pro bono work for a local non-profit you believe in. Not only do they get your quality work, but you get a recognizable name to add to your portfolio.One word of caution about pro bono work: you have to take it seriously. Don’t sign up to do it if you’re not going to make it a priority in your schedule. You won’t be doing the organization any favors if you cause them to miss schedule targets, and you can really give yourself a professional black eye if you come off looking like a flake.
- Start a recycling program if your company doesn’t already have one. If you work in a large organization, approach your operations group about collecting recyclables and signing up a service to process them. If you’re in a smaller company and this isn’t in the budget, you can always organize a group of people who are willing to do the work themselves: set up a schedule and everyone take turns taking glass, say, to a recycling center once a week. Or do it as a department; it makes a great team builder.
Now it’s your turn: what are your tricks for making yourself happy at work? Let us know in the comments.
Great idea about starting a recycling program! It’s easy, and it helps. Paper, inkjet/laser cartridges, CDs and DVDs are all pretty easy. How about batteries? CFLs? Cellphones? Even shoes can be recycled; Nike grinds them up and reuses the bits. (Admittedly, it might be a hard sell to convince management that collecting staffmembers’ smelly old shoes in the copy room is a good thing.)
Of course, reuse beats recycling. There are programs for cellphones, printer cartridges, even eyeglasses:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/charitable-recycling-eyeglasses.html
Rechargeable batteries can be dropped off at any of 50,000 collection centers:
http://www.rbrc.org/consumer/
I haven’t tried it, but the Big Green Box seems like a pretty easy solution — drop one of these in the office somewhere, and ship it back when it fills up:
http://www.biggreenbox.com/
Great article! Thanks for sharing these tips. I agree that it is a good feeling when customers are satisfied with the help that they have received. I also agree with taking a walk to clear your head. One of my tricks is listening to music – I definitely use this to clear my head when I have a chance, and often find that I am in a much better frame of mind and can better work with customers as a result.