Key #2: Clarify what’s wrong and what’s missing in your
current situation.
…There’s an easy solution to this situation: write it down!
Write down 10 things that
you don’t like about your current job situation.
Sign up to receive the full text of the e-course at www.GettingWorkYouLove.com.
10 Things I don't like about my current situation
1. I feel I am often putting in more hours than I am paid for.
2. Working the extra hours becomes the norm and it is very hard to break away from it.
3. I do not have control over my own interaction with my clients. This is dictated to me by the company and I know I am not offering them the best options.
4. I do not feel supported by management
5. I do not like the late working hours
6. I can only see one way for me to move up in the company and I do not want to take this route as it involves job responsibilities I have no interest in.
7. I do not want to work on Saturdays
8. I often feel my efforts are not appreciated
9. I don't get excited about going to work
10. The company's administration policies make it hard to do anything creative or offer my clients anything outside of the normal packages we offer.
At the moment I don't have ten things about my job that I don't like. That's because I have changed jobs!
But before I changed jobs I wasn't sure about making the change; in fact, for two years I remained stuck with a bitter, demanding, blaming boss. In meetings she would ask for suggestions from us only to get angry if we actually made them!
I had become so discouraged with my boss, the negative atmosphere in the office and the very heavy work load that I expected to face comparable working conditions in other similar situations. I lost all perspective on what was possible. And for me losing a sense of positive possibility is a recipe for depression. I became so pessimistic I didn't want to try to make a change.
But then an opportunity to change jobs surfaced and I applied and put a lot of energy into selling myself–and got the job! There are challenges–like teaching at two campuses and a lot to keep organzied, but the students are keen and motivated and my bosses are fair minded.
I am so glad that I didn't give in to my pessimism and that I made the effort to change!
1. Deteriorating performance despite selfless hard work for extra hours (which did not happen in my past years, my current boss has complimented me for my performance in the first year)
2. Weak management skills (don't know how to communicate with subordinates)
3. Cannot gain trust and respect from colleagues
4. Cannot get along with my subordinates and colleagues, and can't handle office politics
5. No “friends” in the workplace
6. Relationship with my boss getting worse and worse
7. I was promoted as manager last year, but since then I cannot perform even the basic tasks I used to do well.
8. I became weak in organisational skills when coming to a complex project
9. I cannot handle complex human relationships between collegues and even clients, I am a simple person, sometimes naive
10. I don't know if I am correct in choosing my current career.
A long list gives plenty of opportunities for improvement! Recognizing exactly what's going wrong is the first step.
Hey, reading about the trust issues, I wonder if you've seen my e-course at http://www.build-workplace-trust? This could be another low cost resource to help you make some changes in your workplace relationships.
10 things that I don't like about my current job situation (in order of dislike, with the thing I don't like the most being the first item)
1. lack of a clear direction – don't know how to focus effort, doing things I am best at and getting the most out of my ability;
2. not getting enough monetary return – probably as a result of Item 1;
3. Unable to enhance efficiency and effectiveness – delay after delay
4. The office environment is not good – too small and too cold
5. Lack of administrative support to boost efficiency
6. Unable to wipe off the confusion between what I like to do and what I should do – because of conflicting objectives. e.g. I should and am willing to spend more time to prepare for my class, so that I get better delivery, better exercises and better materials for my students, but since I am paid in the same hourly rate no matter how much more or how much less I do, the more I do the less time I have for other commitments
7. Not very successful in motivating myself to keep on working, when I am focused and working for say 2 to 3 hours continuously
8. Always get the feeling that there are too many things to do and too few things I have achieved
9. It looks like that I am still not working to my full potentials but don't know how to get onto the fast track
10. because of the first 9 items sometimes I am confused and a little disappointed to myself, making me less tolerant to the shortcomings of others (including my customer). My emotional outburst is making things worse.
I tried to come up with 10 things I don't like about my job, but I failed. I really like my work and while there is no such thing as a perfect company, I like the company in which I work. So I would say my peeves are:
1. Communication slows down as we grow. By this I mean that our company used to communicate alot better when we were alot smaller. As we've expanded quite aggressively, which is a measure of the success we're enjoying, certain communication processes have broken down.
2. Employee feedback wanted! There are now higher chains of command, namely an 'Executive Council' and at times they seem to forget that employees feel valued if their opinions are sought from time to time before certain policies or strategies are implemented. After all, often, the strategies have to be implemented by them, and if they don't agree with the strategy or don't understand the rationale behind it, they'd be less motivated to do a good job.
3. Long hours. But then nobody's forcing me to work long hours. I'm a bit of a workaholic, so I can't really blame the job for this. I also cover a territory that's in a different time zone than the one I'm in most of the time. But what I can do which is in my control, is limit the number of days that I schedule conference calls at night so that I have days when I'm able to spend quality time with friends, family and more importantly … myself. Me time is as important I think.
that's about it … i've just spent 10 minutes trying to think of anything else that I don't like about my work and I'm stumped.
Hmm… can't think of anything else about my work that I don't like.
Hi Caroline, Great posts!
That's nice that there are no big obvious things you don't like about your job. If you want to go further you could think of some little bitty things you don't like. Your working environment? Niggles about colleagues? Certain habits you have? The good thing about finding small things is that they are often easier to fix. And it always feels good when you can make things just a little bit better.
Cheers,
Angela
I can think of only about 5.
1. Lack of people contact/conversion on a regular basis during the day.
2. People thinking that you don't have other jobs to do except theirs.
3. Hard to decide on a regular schedule of activities
4. Juggling activities/scheduling can be hard when everything is due
at same time, then loads of free time.
5. Lack of decent pay for the work I do.
I like the flexibility though and perhaps it's just a matter of getting the balance right as I like being more-or-less my own boss and allocation of time. Main thing is lack of people contact, which perhaps may be resolved in finding a part-time job where I have to meet with people and can discuss things with them.
Jenny
1. boredom
2. routine work
3. some colleagues
4. some customers
5. hypocrisy from many of my colleagues
6. lack of logic from some of them
7. lack of correct work skills from some of my colleagues
8. few chances of promotion
9. promises not kept from manager
10. working hours
10 Things that I don't like about my current work situation:
1. Unfriendly and selfish company culture
2. Bad and not trustworthy management
3. Boss, who i was direct report to was too emotional
4. Boss sometimes was rude
5. Unsystematic and unprofessional in management
6. Over and unfair workload
7. Not being recognized
8. No work progression No career promotion
9. Against the law
10. Disrespectful and fake attitudes
Looks like you'll have to be very careful in selecting your next boss and the company culture.
If you upgrade your own levels of friendliness, trustworthiness, EQ, professionalism, self-recognition and integrity, you will be better equipped to attract the best opportunities. Do you know what you need to do to make that happen?
Cheers,
Angela
What do I need to do then? what do you mean upgrade the level of friendliness, self recognition to attract the better opportunities?
Thanks
I would recommend the NeedLess Program, a coaching program I offer to my clients. It would help you identify your needs and get them completely satisfied so that you are more attractive to a better quality of employers.
We all have needs, and those needs are unattractive. For example, I used to need to be valued, and I found myself in roles where I was underpaid. Since I learned to value myself, I find myself well compensated for my work. This is not a coincidence, but a direct result of getting my needs satisfied.
Needs are subtle, so you may not realize that others can sense your neediness, but they can. In my coaching work with hundreds of people like you, I have found that getting their needs met is the best way to permanently resolve patterns of bad work environments.
I can't give you any more detailed advice without knowing much more about you and your situation. The first step is to identify your most important needs and to see what impact they have on you.
Make sense? Give me a call if you'd like to discuss. +852 8103-7326
1. I am not getting the respect and trust I deserve from my boss and my team
2. I am constantly overworked – I have not been able to take entire weekends off for months on end
3. My motives are constantly being questioned by my boss who I suspect is highly insecure about how well I am doing
4. I am unable to talk to anybody about my situation – talking to my boss does not help, in fact it only makes matters worse as there tends to be a lot of mudslinging; being the second senior most person in the company, it is not as if I can talk to anyone else either; I also cannot discuss things openly with my friends as they work for competition and this would mean compromising my integrity. As a result, I have bottled up all the negative feelings inside me and I know that this manifests itself in many unpleasant ways
5. I do not feel sufficiently rewarded for the hard work that I put in – I suspect that I am being paid less than industry standards, I work much harder than anyone else I know; I do not feel like I have further growth prospects either as there is already someone higher than me and there can be only one Managing Director; and finally, there is no pay-off in terms of personal time either or any semblance of work life balance. As I see it, there are three possible tangible rewards in a job and I am getting neither
6. The atmosphere at work that feels quite dictatorial – there is only one right way of doing things and there is no scope for people experimenting. This is especially true of policies which feel quite arbitrary and mouldable according to the situation – I have suffered as a result of this but worse, i see those who do not have the favour of the MD suffering as a result of this and I feel quite helpless in sorting this out.
7. Role confusion about what I am supposed to do. On the one hand, I am told that my role is no different from that of a MD but when I expect that I will have access to the right kinds of information or when I expect to contribute to a certain decision, then I am told that I am overstepping my boundaries. No amount of discussion is able to sort out this role issue. Even if things sort themselves out for a while, they go back to the same position in a while, everytime the MD feels that her toes are being tread upon
8. It is assumed that just because I am not married, I can work longer hours or that my vacations are expendable – I might be willing to do this if I felt respected or trusted but that is not the case
9. I feel that I have forsaken family and friends to be in this job and I am beginning to hate myself for that
10. I play my role and do my job at the highest levels of integrity but my integrity is constantly questioned, even openly, by my boss. She has even said to me that she thinks that I am gunning for her job and that I am compromising her with her bosses who sit in another part of the world. I know that I have never spoken to anyone within the company about how I am feeling and I therefore feel very let down by this. It feels as if nothing I will do will persuade people that I am not shafting them. I used to initially think that this was not my problem and that other people had trust issues but it is happening so often now that I am now beginning to doubt if I am the cause of the problem in any way
Things are getting interesting when the course asks me to write down 10 things I don't like in my job. Because from the first week that I started to work, I found myself dislike the job, and for the past six month i'm working hard to overcome my bad attitude towards my boss and my job. (OMG! when I write this sentence, I just realized how stupid I was and I didn't actually focus on my work but on the relationship with the office! ) So anyways following are the things that bothers me in the work and I was trying to overcome.
1.I don't like my boss, her voice, smile, tones, and the way yielding at people, and she complains everyday.
2.I feel like I was deceived to have this job. I've never thought of enter a family company, and turns out my two boss are a couple.
3.I hate that I still don't figure out who is actually the real boss. Some times the husband seems like the boss, but most of times he listens to his wife.
4.I hate that I have to deal with emotions from my boss, and subtle relationship of working together with her and her husband. I just have to be very careful, and it's not about work.
5.I don't like that my boss's son come to the office and run around like it's his backyard garden.
6.I'm not excited about going to work. and I think I should, because I like working.
7.All the office people are friends with the boss couple, but not me. They are real friends, – family tours together, BBQ together, talk about kids together. Is this a COMPANY??
8.I hate that I can't work quietly, there is always radio on in the office for the creative team. And the radio is just boring.
9.I feel I'm deceived that I was hired by an advertising agency, but I have to do non-advertising agency work. Simply because my boss owns other companies under her name.
10. There is no clear direction for my job, and a lot of times, i'm confused what is my responsibilities.
Boy, this sounds rough! I hope you're developing a plan to get out of there, and learn from the experience.
Cheers,
Angela
Generally speaking my job and company are great but I feel lost when I think about the longer term. What's wrong is:
1. Lack of passion and enthusiasm for the job
2. Lack of drive to find the energy
3. Lack of purpose in my current job as I don't think it aligns with my passion and strengths
4. Same basic process with variations apply to different client situations. Therefore I'm starting to feel bored in my role.
5. I could be challenged further pushing myself more.
6. Lack of direction on career progression and next steps
7. Feel like I'm always covering myself and having to protect/justify what I do to make sure it's right and also stated in writing to prove that I've gone through the steps. I am in the service industry so of course I should provide good service but sometimes I feel too accountable and with little benefit.
8. I'm missing something because I don't feel that flow. I look forward to weekends and am not truly passionate about my work. This makes me think I should be doing something else because it's a waste of time to do something you're not 100% passionate about.
9. Lack of work life balance. I would love to be able to control my time better.
10. Lack of creativity in my current job. I feel stale and like I'm not evolving for the better.
Right, I wouldn't leave my previous company for just 1 or 2 reasons.
1. My job nature has changed from a kind that required skills to another that required mainly contacting people. Thus, lack of motivation to work.
2. Team structure was not appropriate for the job tasks. Colleagues were not equipped with the knowledge or skills required to do the job tasks.
3. A colleague was mean with his words, jealous of me getting a promotion, said things which embarassed me from time to time. He liked to gossip and he was not productive with his works. He got on my nerves.
4. I felt very uncomfortable in my workstation. Something was wrong and I felt sick. I asked to relocate my seat, but my boss didn't take it serious and ignored my request.
5. The office was crowded. There was no where to take a short break or make a private phone call.
6. Most colleagues were fresh graduates or that they were new to the industry. Some questioned the way we worked or the quality of our work.
7. The quality of my work deteriorated. I was working on a few things everyday and had deadlines to meet. Time and quality were not in balance.
8. I didn't like seeing some colleagues working 12 hours or more a day in the office everyday of their own accord. I felt quilty and at the same time, they should find work life balance and be more updated with what's going on around us.
9. Some colleagues were complaining about late working hours, jobs done by other colleagues were not good and gossiping about other colleagues. I didn't like to hear people bad-mouthing other people. A positive attitude should be adopted.
10. I needed some changes about my work. I didn't like to change the job nature, but I needed some changes to make myself refreshed. Even a seat relocation would have been good enough to make me feel refreshed.
Write down 10 things that you don't like about your current work situation.
• Can`t understand (what I can`t get job interview)
• Miss opportunity (to learn more)
• Feel useless (no salary, no matters and plenty of time)!
• Be tired to do nothing (basics matters)
• Miss actions (busy week day)
• Do not improve my background
• Can`t use & practice my English
• Can`t enjoy life (cases not fulfilled)
• Loss self-confidence
• Thinking more and more (doing less and less)
Chris
1. Office is bit lonely. Only me and one other eprson who works part time. Need to have more interaction to act as a stimulus
2. Continuous pressure to bring in revenue
3. Office is untidy
4. Bit boring
5. I'm getting worse at communications and presentations
6. I'm sat down too much
7. I'm becoming less engagign as a person
8. Too often lack energy or drive
9. Hours aren't so long but does require flexibility to work evening times when the kids are goign to bed which I hate to miss
10. Office building and location is not great but that's the payoff to cheaper rent
Key #2: Clarify what’s wrong and what’s missing in your current situation.
. . . 10 things that I don’t like about my current career!!! Here goes . . .
1 feel unsupported at times by management
2 undervalued by colleagues
3 isolated at times . . .
4 lack of guidance and feedback generally
5 considered ‘cheap labour’ for responsibilities
6 self-interest by colleagues
7 too many cliques at work . . . lack of openness
8 lack of appraisals and mentoring
9 not enough hours
10 insincerity to clients’ needs and expectations b management . . .
1. Without actual recognition in every promotion I had
2. Without any career development commitment from the company.
3. Without supervisory support in dealing with problem
4. Not enjoying to work individually in big projects
5. Feel frustrated with others not contributing but building blocks.
6. Not knowing my real interest within the company
7. Frustrated with everyone satisfying without improving themselves.
8. Disappointed with everyone asking me to wait for opportunities.
9. Concern about the possibility to achieve my career goal
10. Unsatisfied with “just telling but not offering” type of comment to my future development.
Thanks for adding your comments, Theo. I hope you’ll start discovering some solutions as you work through the rest of the e-course.
Cheers, Angela