Tammy Erickson, a workplace expert and author of Plugged In:The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work, advises that if you’re unhappy, see if you can upgrade your contribution to the company, or find a way to be more creative about your job.
Sometimes it’s not about how much you’re getting from your job, but how much of a difference you feel like you can make. If you don’t feel like your work has value, it’s hard to get excited about it. But you usually do have some control over that.
Next time you’re feeling down about your job, peek at this list of Top 10 Ancient Jobs That Sucked Big Time and maybe you’ll look at your to-do list with renewed enthusiasm.
You don’t even have to go back to ancient times; there are plenty of jobs today that pretty much suck, and if you’re here reading this, they’re probably not yours.
Sometimes we all need a little perspective.
Happy Monday! Hope this turns out to be a great week for all of us.
photo credit: melalouise
I have a lot to be thankful for this year, and I’m not just saying that for a trite Thanksgiving blog post.
This year, I started a web marketing optimization company (called [meta]marketer) and we’re truly doing well. I found a business partner I respect and admire and who shares many of my core values, and we hired someone with a lot of smarts and talent and who also wants to make a positive influence on the the world. We’re small, but we’re growing, and we have big plans.
And then there’s this blog, which has been a great opportunity for me to focus my thoughts and remind myself why it’s important to me to lead with integrity and be a force for positive change in the business community, however small my impact. Sometimes it’s a lot to keep up with, especially when I’m up to my ears in leads I need to follow up with and client meetings to attend to, but it’s worth having a place to come back to and renew my passion for good in business.
And of course, there’s my life partner, who, despite being wired for art and beauty and hedonism and everything non-corporate, understands my corporate idealism and patiently puts up with my excessive work hours and workload.
I’m healthy, I’m happy, I have good prospects ahead of me, and I love the people around me.
If that’s not success, I don’t know what is.
I hope you have a wonderful, happy, healthy Thanksgiving and a restful long weekend, and that you come back to work next Monday recharged and ready to do good work.
Fast Company has a feature on its site called 30 Second MBA, and it’s a series of interviews with business leaders, each answering the same question for a week’s series, all within 30 seconds. It’s an incredible resource, and sure to get your mind ready for the week ahead. Try this one on innovation (which actually runs a few seconds past 30 – that’s why the alarm goes off at the end):
See? Good stuff. Just the kind of thing to make you look at your work in a fresh light.
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