Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today is Labor Day in the United States, and so
Speaker 1: this week we're going to be talking about work and
Speaker 1: how we feel about it. Today's tip is about how
Speaker 1: to become happier in a job that feels like just
Speaker 1: a paycheck. I decided to do an episode on this
Speaker 1: topic after getting a note from a listener who is
Speaker 1: in just such a position. She noted that the things
Speaker 1: she cared about, volunteering at church, spending time with loved ones,
Speaker 1: consuming stories, traveling had nothing to do with her job,
Speaker 1: or really with most normal jobs. She wrote that her
Speaker 1: job was good as these things went, but during her
Speaker 1: work hours, I feel like I am in an adult
Speaker 1: form of time out. I sit in my office chair
Speaker 1: and think about my life choices, will values are on hold?
Speaker 1: How can I make this time count for more than
Speaker 1: just to paycheck. I followed up because I wanted to
Speaker 1: know why this listener had taken a job that made
Speaker 1: her feel like she was an adult time out in
Speaker 1: the first place. I learned as I suspected that there
Speaker 1: were a lot of upsides to this job. The sort
Speaker 1: that make it hard to quit. She was paid well.
Speaker 1: Her official schedule required working four nine hour days, so
Speaker 1: she was off every single Friday, a perk that certainly
Speaker 1: had its benefits for family and community involvement. She got
Speaker 1: benefits like tuition reimbursement, free access to a fitness center,
Speaker 1: and other discounts. When she came in late. Sometimes no
Speaker 1: one complained, no one tried to micromanager. She liked her colleagues.
Speaker 1: She was just well board. And while spending thirty six
Speaker 1: hours per week in a boring job is better than
Speaker 1: spending fifty hours a week in a boring job, I
Speaker 1: know I'd rather work fifty exciting, challenging hours than thirty
Speaker 1: six worring ones. I would not be able to report
Speaker 1: to a job day after day where I felt bored,
Speaker 1: and I don't want that for anyone else either. So
Speaker 1: the question was what our listeners should do about it first,
Speaker 1: before anyone gets worried, My first advice is not to quit.
Speaker 1: That is an option and might be necessary at some point,
Speaker 1: But if daily life is tolerable, then the wisest first
Speaker 1: step may to be to try to improve the current situation. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: there are all kinds of ways to turn the job
Speaker 1: you have into a job you'd love. I suggested spending
Speaker 1: the next six to twelve months truly focused on improving
Speaker 1: the situation and crafting her position into something she found
Speaker 1: more interesting. First, she should seek out more challenging work.
Speaker 1: A few job descriptions are carved in stone. People are
Speaker 1: happiest when they are making progress on difficult but doable things. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't recommend going to your manager and saying I'm bored.
Speaker 1: I suspect most managers would react to that in the
Speaker 1: same way I do when my kids knock on my
Speaker 1: door and announce this. Instead, anyone in this situation should
Speaker 1: come up with their own ideas for using their time better.
Speaker 1: Look around the organization and see what's working and what's not.
Speaker 1: Could you use your particular skills to improve what's not working?
Speaker 1: Are there departments or teams who seem to be doing
Speaker 1: cool stuff? Could you try helping out on projects there?
Speaker 1: Talk to lots of people, lunches, coffees, walking meetings. Figure
Speaker 1: out what work you'd find more interesting, and figure out
Speaker 1: how you can get involved. Maybe it's an internal move,
Speaker 1: but it could also just be reallocating time. Our listener
Speaker 1: who sent in this question had some available time during
Speaker 1: slower periods. She could get involved in new areas during
Speaker 1: this time, even if it wasn't officially part of her
Speaker 1: job description. Of course, it's possible she wouldn't have all
Speaker 1: the right skills for certain other projects, and that's where
Speaker 1: some of the organization's benefits came into play. She had
Speaker 1: a good tuition reimbursement policy, so she should definitely be
Speaker 1: using that. Now. There may be some gray area here,
Speaker 1: but in my mind, if the courses she chose were
Speaker 1: plausibly related to her job, she could use some of
Speaker 1: her job downtime to study in complete assignments. This would
Speaker 1: definitely remove the sense of being an adult time out.
Speaker 1: She could also look for ways to be involved in
Speaker 1: her organization's community. Joining our starting employee affiliation groups is
Speaker 1: always good, and sometimes larger organizations have service projects or
Speaker 1: conferences or community days that always need volunteers. While this
Speaker 1: might not feel quite as meaningful to her as her
Speaker 1: church volunteering, it would have some of the same upsides. Indeed,
Speaker 1: she could try to spearhead programs to do service events
Speaker 1: for some of the same causes that her church supported.
Speaker 1: Whether you're reading at an after school program on behalf
Speaker 1: of your house of worship or your employer. It's all
Speaker 1: good now. Of course, this might not work. I do
Speaker 1: believe that six to twelve months of solid effort can
Speaker 1: improve just about anything, whether that's a relationship or a hub.
Speaker 1: That said, if she still felt an adult time out
Speaker 1: after a year, she would have a few options. One
Speaker 1: is to consciously decouple her sense of self from her job.
Speaker 1: Our listener was actually toying around with this concept already,
Speaker 1: as she told me, we roughly sleep and work for
Speaker 1: the same amount of time each day. However, I don't
Speaker 1: consider myself a sleeper as my primary identity. It's just
Speaker 1: the thing I have to do. It isn't the whole
Speaker 1: of who I am or the most valuable thing I do.
Speaker 1: This is a valid point. It might help to really
Speaker 1: keep work in context. If our listener worked thirty six
Speaker 1: hours per week and slept eight hours per night, this
Speaker 1: leaves seventy six hours for other things, and this is
Speaker 1: a lot of time. She could consciously think about how
Speaker 1: to maximize her enjoyment of these other hours, taking on
Speaker 1: serious volunteer rules, indulging in longer and more exotic vacations,
Speaker 1: and planning in adventures with friends and family on the
Speaker 1: long weekends that she had every weekend. She could also
Speaker 1: decide to ride things out for a while, but ramp
Speaker 1: up savings and perhaps start a side hustle with the
Speaker 1: goal of achieving financial independence long before the normal retirement age.
Speaker 1: Knowing that in say eight years, she can completely control
Speaker 1: her time might make the intervening years feel better. Or
Speaker 1: and this is perhaps the best option, she could find
Speaker 1: another job. People are often fearful of the unknown, especially
Speaker 1: if the known is comfortable and has upsides that are
Speaker 1: hard to replicate. But if working a four day week
Speaker 1: was critical to our listener, I absolutely believe she could
Speaker 1: find another job that might allow for that. I absolutely
Speaker 1: believe that she could find more exciting work. I believe
Speaker 1: she could even find more flexible and more interesting work
Speaker 1: that paid more to We often tuck ourselves into silly
Speaker 1: traps like, oh, if I get paid more, I'll just
Speaker 1: have to do stuff I like less. But few people
Speaker 1: have totally optimized their jobs. We take jobs because they're
Speaker 1: hiring when we're looking, or because we know someone there
Speaker 1: because it's an employer that we're familiar with. Broadening the search,
Speaker 1: especially over a twelve month time frame could open up
Speaker 1: all sorts of other possibilities for great gigs. And ultimately,
Speaker 1: that's what I want for everyone listening to this to
Speaker 1: absolutely love what you do. I want you to wake
Speaker 1: up excited to go to work. I want you to
Speaker 1: feel like you're making a difference in the world as
Speaker 1: you work with people you respect and who inspire you
Speaker 1: to be your best self. I also believe that with
Speaker 1: concerted effort over a year or two, you could get there.
Speaker 1: This labor day, Let's get to a place where labor
Speaker 1: is a meaningful, wonderful part of life, not the equivalent
Speaker 1: of adult time out in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of i heart Radio. For
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