So you hate your job? Really?

Do you have fun doing your job? Do you enjoy your job as much as your hobby?

I know this may sound like a stupid question and you may say who likes their job that much. But trust me, this is one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself to succeed in your career.

Even if your answer to my question is no, I want you to think again.

The Reality is the answer to this question can not be binary, yes or no for any of us. There are parts of our job that we like and there are parts that we hate. Depending on which parts are what, you may be having an overall impression.

Now I want you to answer this question again but a little differently.

What do you love and hate about your job?

I want you to write it down in bullets. Most of you will be surprised that even if your overall impression was that I don't love my job, you may have more points to love than hate.

Then why most of the time it's difficult to hear that I love my job. There are several factors -

• Our mind is programmed to fall towards the negative. It's one of our survival mechanisms to be prepared for the worst that can happen. That's why staying positive is difficult. You are continuously fighting your survival instinct. But it's worth doing irrespective of how tiring it may seem sometime. So if you hear or read that your basic nature is bliss, you are joy, etc and you wonder why I don't feel that. Remember they are lying. You are perfectly normal to get pulled into negativity all time. Just develop a mechanism to cope with it.  Coming back to the job, the same mechanism gives you the impression that things are bad at work unless you consciously take the effort to analyze such as a list.

• The second part is people. When you make the list of good and bad factors about your job, it's most likely one of the bad factors will be related to people, either a disrespectful boss or cunning colleague or someone else. When we have a continuous bad experience with people, it overshadows other good things at work. That's why most people's overall impression of a job is bad.

• The third part is also about people. There is a big pandemic in workplaces that have always eaten up talent. It's called Gossip. Gossip is never positive. No one during coffee breaks would say what a wonderful organization it is. Everyone will pour their negativity and you will come back drained of energy. The solution is not to talk positively there. It is to quit those circles. You don't build networking by connecting with the same colleagues daily over coffee and talking negatively. Nothing good comes out of it. It only gives you a false impression of how bad your workplace is.

So next time you say I hate my job, pause and make list. I am not saying you should do nothing about it. If you realize there are more negatives, do something about these, even if it means quitting. But analyze it.

You can also find me on Sangtani.com, GauravSangtani.com and Sangtani.Substack.com

[All Views in this article and anything I publish, are purely personal in nature and don't represent the view of any organization I may be associated with]