We have all had that feeling of dread on the Sunday evening when you realise Monday is coming! Are you loving your work or what are your feelings towards what you do each day? How high of a priority should we place on our job satisfaction? Below I will share with you my journey to loving my work.
I had just finished college and took up a job in a local electrical retail store where I planned to work on my presentation skills. There was one staff meeting I remember attending that changed my thinking on where I work forever. As the manager gathered the troops to motivate us to work well she exclaimed “you are spending 80% of your life at work so ye should really love what ye are doing”. The speech was meant to motivate us for the immediate job at hand – but for me however it got me thinking. I did not love what I was doing in the slightest.
Helping Customers???
My job at the time involved “helping” customers to buy electrical products. We were basically instructed to sell as much as we could and to meet our target each week without fail regardless of what this meant to the customer. There was something wrong about the whole system. It seemed to me as soon as the customer made their order and handed in their cash they were forgotten about. The customer service and follow up was not part of the job, it was purely a numbers game – meet your target and stay out of trouble.
A change of thinking
After my manager’s speech I made myself a promise. Whatever it took and no matter how long it took I would put my hours in to a job that I really did love. Washing machines were not doing it for me and although essential for everyday living I ended up dreading seeing another family looking through our selection of machines and explaining about the load sizes and speed of the spin cycles. I wanted to work where I might make a difference, solving problems, helping businesses and improving experiences. I wanted to work where I would be challenged and encouraged to grow in creativity and design.
Life is too short in my opinion to be working in a position that we dread. Of course there are moments in life when we need to use stepping stones to get where we want to be. My first step to getting where I wanted to be was to hand in my notice to my manager. After the excellent speech manager delivered previously, me handing in my notice to leave came as a shock. Not having another job lined up was also puzzling.
Not giving up
Life is too short to be working in a position that we dread
Ten years have rolled on so fast and I am delighted to report that I am well on the way to where I want to be. As creative director in Surge I am challenging myself each day to grow in experience and business wisdom. The ever changing nature of our work is something that excites me with such a broad range of clients there is never a dull moment. We take a personal approach at Surge which involves really getting to know our clients and almost become one of them. Our emphasis on customer service in Surge is a big contrast to the electrical store where the idea was to move on to the next customer and forget about the one who handed you the money.
Job satisfaction is an extremely important aspect of any job. Our personalities, gifts and talents all play important roles in what we can get out of a job or task. Often we tend to give up on a passion or dream if things do not work out at first.
Is there an ambition that you have and would like to pursue but cannot see it happening any time soon? Never give up on it – keep working towards it and you will be going in the right direction.
