Do you need Career Help? Are you thinking of leaving your job? Do you feel like you’re in “Cubicle Prison”?
Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if you actually quit your job only to discover down the road that you didn’t actually want to quit your job, you simply needed a little CPR: “Career Path Resuscitation“?
There is a possibility that if we just altered some things about our jobs, we would actually want to stay. Perhaps we like some aspects of our job, but it’s just that we:
- Hate our boss;
- Hate the pay;
- Hate the hours;
- Hate some of our duties;
- Hate the location;
- Hate our co-workers.
What you need is a Job Autopsy!
Doing a “JOB AUTOPSY” on your current job can help for 2 reasons:
- To see if some positive changes were implemented, you might want to stay in your current job;
- To help you take steps to improve your current job situation so that you will be happier at least for the time being while you have to work there until the day comes (hopefully soon) when you can actually quit your job and follow your dreams.
Either way, it’s a win/win proposition for you. To believe that your workplace is solely responsible for your happiness is to give your power away to your employer. At the end of the day, the truth is that YOU are responsible for your own workplace satisfaction and NOT your employer.
So today is the day that you are going to start taking back your power and gaining more satisfaction from your current job. This is going to require two things on your part: action and setting your intention.
Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, authors of “Love it, Don’t Leave It: 26 Ways to Get What You Want at Work,” say:
“To often we leave for greener pastures elsewhere only to find Astroturf.”
In order to know whether you should “Love It” or “Leave It,” we need to do some investigating as to what is wrong or what is missing from your current job. Until you identify these things, you won’t know whether the things that make you unhappy at work are things you can change or they are just the “nature” of the work you are in. Once you figure this all out, you will absolutely know whether to “Love It” or “Leave It.”
One valid reason you may be feeling unhappy or unfulfilled is something called “Career Creep“.
What is Career Creep you ask?
Good question. Marcus Buckingham, co-author of, “One Thing You Need to Know” defines Career Creep as this:
“Following your initial success, one new responsibility is added, then another, then another, as your job slowly shifts beneath you, inching you further and further away from your strengths’ path and finally, you wake up one morning and realize that the majority of your new job bores you, leaves you unfulfilled, frustrates you, drains you or all of the above.”
Sound familiar?
STEP 1: ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
A good reporter always answers the questions: who, what when, where, why and how. In order to figure out what you want at work, as well as what you don’t want, here is a list of 20 questions to help you gain more clarity about your current job. In this case, you are both the interviewer and the interviewee. Take the time to invest in yourself and answer all of the following questions. You’re worth it!
Career Test:
- Are you a people person or a project person? Which role do you play in your current job? Which do you prefer?
- What duties do you dislike and would give them to someone else if you could? What percentage of your day do you spending doing these things?
- What duties are you passionate about at work? What percentage of your day is spent doing these things?
- Out of all the jobs you’ve ever had in your life, which one did you love the most and why?
- If there was one change you could pick at your current job to make you stay, what would that be and why?
- What would your ideal/perfect workday look like? In detail please.
- Do you feel respected at work?
- Do you receive praise and recognition at work?
- Do you like the hours of your job?
- Do you like the location of where you work?
- What kind of expectations did you have when you first took this job?
- What has been your biggest disappointment?
- Do you like and respect your boss or do you work for a jerk?
- Is there any fun at your job? Is fun important to you?
- Do you like your co-workers?
- Are there any new skills you could learn that would improve your job? If so, what are they?
- Do you think you should be making more money for what you do?
- Is there room for advancement in your current position?
- Is your work life and home life in balance? If not, what exactly is out of balance?
- What would you miss the most if you quit your job?
By answering these 20 questions, this will give you loads of insight as to “how” or “why” you drifted away from your dreams. Perhaps it was for more money, better hours or a promotion. Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is it caused you to lose sight of your dreams and what truly makes you happy in life.
If you’re still not sure whether to love it or leave it, here are a few clues it’s time to leave:
- You are absolutely burnt out in the field that you work in;
- You spend 75% of your day doing what you hate and there is absolutely no way to change this;
- You cannot be true to yourself in this job;
- Your skills are no longer necessary in your job;
- The nature of the job you are in does not coincide with your dreams.
- Your dreams can never be fulfilled while at this job;
- Your job is very stressful and is negatively affecting your health; although you’ve tried to make changes, everything stays the same.
