Celebrate the job you have

Cannot but share this message I received from a friend today

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The year has barely just begun and already many people are probably feeling depressed about their current job. This is probably because you carried all the stress and regret from the previous year into the new one. The festive season allowed you to relax and forget about it all but now its back to reality. But instead of moping around all day why don’t you do something?

With the current economic recession many of us are feeling the financial crunch and think finding a better job is the best thing especially considering that you might hate your current one. But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and finding another job won’t be easy during this time. People are being retrenched or put off left right and centre because many businesses are making huge losses. So instead of looking for greener pastures why not make the most of the job you already have?

Build Relationships: Considering that you spend at least eight hours with your colleagues it might be a good idea to build better friendships. Yes they might sometimes be a pain but if you have someone to talk to at work it will make your time there much more pleasurable. If you aren’t friendly at work people won’t have a problem back stabbing you, something that often happens at the work place.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: A lot of people feel they aren’t getting paid enough for what they do or are remunerated properly for what their skills are worth. Be grateful that you even have the opportunity to earn a living because many people have to beg and borrow to support their families. If you think you are worth more than what you are getting, go the extra mile and give 110 % to show your employer that that if they lost you there would be a big gap in the company. This might encourage them to increase your salary and appreciate you much more. Hard work pays off.

You’re up to date: Most employers give their employees training and other skills to improve their performance. In most cases you don’t pay for this training because it is for the company’s benefit. When new technology comes along you learn new things that some people might only get to try in a few months.

Be Passionate: Don’t do things in an “I hate my job” attitude. This is what could be holding you back from finding out where you fit in the company. If you are passionate in what you do you will always give your best and appreciate the end result. Slap dash work is obvious and it is probably the thing that will end up getting you fired.

Assess your skills: Whenever you feel down and worthless remind yourself of all the skills you have. Think about how the skills or service you provide, helps get to the end product. This will give you some sort of satisfaction.

Go Back to the Beginning: Ask yourself why you took the job in the first place. This might help renew your determination to do what needs to be done. If you saw yourself further up in the ladder than where you are set goals to get the position in the company you want. The closer you get the more drive you will have every morning when you get to work.

Change your Attitude: Instead of waking up in the morning sad and depressed and going to work with the same attitude try a different approach. Look in the mirror every morning and tell yourself that you will have a great day at work. It’s all to do with the laws of attraction. If you say and do positive things then you will attract that positive energy into your life.

There is no such thing as the perfect job. It’s the passion you have for that job and the way that you commit yourself is what sets you apart from the miserable faces you probably see every day.

Time for Vacation!!!

Today is the last day of classes before we break for a three-week vacation. Excitement and the feeling of "I'can't-care'less-anymore" are palpable in the air. In the 41 C degree Madrid conditions, even cold beer does not save the brain from melting and, to be frank with you, studying has become a somewhat "too much" - the break is needed and welcome.

It is critical to balance work and leisure, but what is the proportion and how do we know the correct timing for that? In the article Economics of Happiness, the main idea is clear: wellbeing costs (and brings!) money, time and effort. Nobody wants unhappy, worn off and tired-brain employees, and we are welcoming those who rock up to work with a fresh tan, no bags under the eyes and a spring in their walk. Even when I was in my heaviest recruiting stages, irrespective of how desperate I was to get a person in, I would always advise him or her to take a week or so off, before starting the new job. I strongly believe that the return on this tactic is multi-fold.

Think about it in terms of psychological impact. We get over personal issues much easier than those we encounter in a professional or academic environment. Another Gallup article talks about career wellbeing and it compares loss of a job to a loss of a spouse:

One of the more encouraging findings was that, even in the face of some of life's most tragic events like the death of a spouse, after a few years, people do recover to the same level of wellbeing they had before their spouse passed away. But this was not the case for those who were unemployed for a prolonged period of time -- particularly not for men. Our wellbeing actually recovers more rapidly from the death of a spouse than it does from a sustained period of unemployment.

 There is a reason for people to have coffee breaks, there is a reson for people to have weekends and there is a reason to go on vacation. That´s exactly what I am going to do, so see you in a couple of weeks... will be refreshed and full of energy!

The Business Case for Wellbeing

Gallup in its study of wellbeing identifies 5 essential elements of wellbeing:

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  Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time -- or simply liking what you do every day
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  Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life
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  Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life
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  Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
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  Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live

Managers are often so concerned about other employees that they tend to disrespect their own claims to rest and detachment from work. Hence, long hours, leave days buy-outs and heart attacks in the workplace.

This thought is particularly important now for my fellow MBA students and myself: with the exam session approaching, the valid question for everyone is: is (academic) success in the short run more important that the potential stress that you cause to your body? I know the answers that I am going to get, so the least I can do is to offer some personal advice:

• find at least 15-20 minutes for physical exercise (a jog around the block 5 times would be great :)
• drink water: hydrate yourself
• eat dark chocolate: it stimulates mental activity and provides you with the necessary amount of (relatively) good sugars
• take regular breaks and meals
• draft a study plan
• go out for an hour or two to take your mind off studies: information is best absorbed when activities are changing

... have I missed anything? Ah, yes: take it easy!