Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that all jobs have ups and downs, but
Speaker 1: if you find yourself unhappy for a significant proportion of
Speaker 1: your work week, it might be time to look for
Speaker 1: something else. Ideally, you spend no more than the equivalent
Speaker 1: of one day a week on things you really don't
Speaker 1: want to do. That is, if you like all but
Speaker 1: twenty percent of your job, you've got a keeper. If
Speaker 1: you dislike more than twenty percent, you might want to
Speaker 1: see what else is out there. So I started thinking
Speaker 1: about this topic recently when someone asked a group of
Speaker 1: us what we felt was an acceptable ratio of positive
Speaker 1: to negative feelings about a job. In my younger years,
Speaker 1: I might have said this ratio should be infinite. That is,
Speaker 1: you should like absolutely everything about your job and dislike nothing.
Speaker 1: As I have gotten older, I have realized that disliking
Speaker 1: zero is going to be tough to pull off, even
Speaker 1: in almost ideal situations. We are seldom one hundred percent
Speaker 1: happy in life. You can be sitting on a tropical
Speaker 1: beach watching a beautiful sunset while sitting next to the
Speaker 1: love of your life and still be thinking hm, my
Speaker 1: toe itches such as the human condition. You can love
Speaker 1: your job and still find your weekly meeting with Dave
Speaker 1: from Accounting tedious, but isn't quitting and neither are you,
Speaker 1: and so here we are. I'll also note that sometimes
Speaker 1: we think the problem is with the job, and it
Speaker 1: turns out to be more internal. I have followed some
Speaker 1: situations where people have quit jobs because they just can't
Speaker 1: trust their coworkers and they're always crashing right before deadlines.
Speaker 1: Then they find different jobs and it turns out that
Speaker 1: you just can't trust these co workers either, and they
Speaker 1: are still always crashing right before deadlines. And maybe, just maybe,
Speaker 1: these two situations have something very specific and common, namely
Speaker 1: the person experiencing them that said, you have to balance
Speaker 1: the reality that nothing is perfect against the truth that,
Speaker 1: as far as we know, you only get one wild
Speaker 1: and precious life. As the at Mary Oliver would put it,
Speaker 1: it would be one thing to be miserable day in
Speaker 1: and day out if you were assigned a job at
Speaker 1: age twenty and required by law to keep it until retirement.
Speaker 1: But if you are listening to this podcast, then you
Speaker 1: don't live in a society like that there are millions
Speaker 1: of jobs out there, many of them are currently open.
Speaker 1: Within any given industry, there are often lots of companies,
Speaker 1: some of which have vastly different cultures from others. Within
Speaker 1: any company, some departments are probably a lot better to
Speaker 1: work for than other departments, to say nothing of individual managers.
Speaker 1: And if you can't find a company or department you like,
Speaker 1: there are lots of ways to start your own business,
Speaker 1: many of which don't require a whole lot of capital
Speaker 1: to begin. In other words, you are not trapped. I
Speaker 1: know it can be hard to leave. Maybe you earn
Speaker 1: a lot of money. Sometimes people who earn a lot
Speaker 1: of money believe that they have to accept certain things
Speaker 1: about their jobs. But the labor market isn't totally efficient,
Speaker 1: and so most people haven't completely optimized on any dimension.
Speaker 1: That means that even if you earn a lot now,
Speaker 1: it is always possible that you will be able to
Speaker 1: find a job you like more that pays more. Too.
Speaker 1: You might be able to find a job you like
Speaker 1: more that is more flexible as well. You might be
Speaker 1: able to find a job that pays more and features
Speaker 1: nicer colleagues. You just don't know until you look to
Speaker 1: strike a balance between the truth that nothing is perfect
Speaker 1: and the truth that no one deserves to be misera.
Speaker 1: I will put twenty percent out there as a target
Speaker 1: to aim for. You want to like all but the
Speaker 1: equivalent of one day a week at your job, as
Speaker 1: few people actually shunt all the work they don't like
Speaker 1: to one day. In practice, it will be more like
Speaker 1: an hour or two a day of stuff you generally
Speaker 1: prefer not to be doing. You might try keeping track
Speaker 1: of your time and seeing where the percentage lies currently.
Speaker 1: If it is over twenty percent, that doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: need to quit Jerry McGuire style. The first thing you
Speaker 1: should do is see if you can craft your job
Speaker 1: to spend less time on the things you really don't like.
Speaker 1: Do they actually have to be done, Maybe they don't,
Speaker 1: or maybe they can be done with less fanfare than
Speaker 1: they are currently getting. Maybe the load can be shared
Speaker 1: or delegated. Maybe things can be done more quickly or
Speaker 1: more efficiently. You meet with Dave from Accounting for thirty
Speaker 1: minutes rather than sixty. You can also try doing more
Speaker 1: of the stuff you really do like, which at least
Speaker 1: pushes the proportion down. I am not suggesting extending your hours,
Speaker 1: but If you do have a lot going on, you
Speaker 1: become less available for tasks that wouldn't be your first choice.
Speaker 1: People start asking you less, or you find ways to
Speaker 1: spend less time on these things. Time is elastic that way,
Speaker 1: but if the proportion is quite a bit over twenty percent,
Speaker 1: then it is time to really look at life and
Speaker 1: figure out what you can do. There is no harm
Speaker 1: in reaching out to old contacts and set up some coffees. Indeed,
Speaker 1: people should be doing that regularly, even if they love
Speaker 1: their jobs, but it might flush out some new opportunities
Speaker 1: somewhere better. Work doesn't have to be a negative thing
Speaker 1: in life. It can be a source of joy at
Speaker 1: least eighty percent of the time. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at ihart media dot com.
Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters
Speaker 1: thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch?
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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