How To Fall Back In Love With Your Job

In today’s world, there probably hasn’t been a job market as hostile since the recession, which is hard news to take for workers who were dying to leave or move on from their job even before the panny-d hit. A year later, it’s hard to find a job and stay motivated to keep working from home, never mind working at a job that you weren’t happy in before little Miss ‘Rona came to our shores.

Whether you’re a teacher or an engineer, we all have gripes with our jobs that leave us struggling to feel ready to have a great day at work. If you’re really on your last nerve with your current position, here are some tips to try to fall back in love with your job!

Use your strengths

List your strengths, and monitor how you work best. For instance, you’re great at solving problems, creative and resourceful, write these skills down on a page and tick them every time you’re using one of these strengths during the day. When our concentration is switched to enforcing these skills and trying to engage our strengths as much as possible, we’re approaching our work in a different way.

Get a side gig going

If you feel like you’re spending all your time and energy on this job which is not bringing results or satisfaction, it could be time to find something outside work that replicates those feelings instead. There are so many people with established businesses today that all started out with a hobby.

Think of things that make you happy or would bring you fulfilment, perhaps candle-making, knitting, drawing, painting, any skill that would make you feel that passion again. You never know, depending on how good you are, you could turn it into a little business on the side. Having a full-time job and a side hustle will also let you appreciate the time allocated for each – variety is the spice of life dont’cha know?

If the day belongs to work, make mornings your own

Starting the day in a fouler because you’ve to work again is only gonna hurt you in the long run, hun. You’ll be like a blue-arsed fly by 11am with no concentration and get feck all done all day, adding to the list of tasks you’ll have to do the next day or next week. Cue the next bad mood for the future you!

If you start work at 9, give yourself an hour (or maybe two if you’re feeling extra bouj’) and make the morning yours. Go for a walk, listen to your face music, cook yourself a little gorge breakfast, maybe a lush skincare routine… Do the things that would relax you before bed but before work to put yourself in a good mood. It can sometimes feel like you’re on a hamster wheel, bed. work, bed, work, but if you put in the time to start the day right, it can make the work day feel like just a couple hours before its lunchtime or the end of the day and you’re free again.

Avoid the office misery guts

If you’re near the office moan, run as far as you can. Yep, it’s natural for most workplace environments to be workers versus the boss, but my god, there’s nothing worse than one person constantly bitching about how shit the job is, or how low the pay is, or how terrible the management is. Any semi-decent day is going to be instantly soured by this one vulture, and prepare for your mood to be sapped by this person too.

If you find you are the person who is constantly enraged by everything and anything about your job, try writing down one nice thing that’s happened at work. No experience is in life is pointless, and while you may be itching to leave this job, reframe it as you making connections, growing your network and learning about the big bad working world.

Step in their shoes

Your boss is a tool. Okay, we know. It’s hard to say this without sounding like a Jenny from Derry Girls level of lick, but have you ever thought of their choices and motivations behind what they do? Decisions and disagreements in work can feel extremely personal but try to remember, it’s just a job. Every boss has their own rhyme or reason for what they say or how they say it. OR maybe it’s the pressure they feel from higher up.

If you really can’t justify their decisions, tone or leadership, imagine how you would do it differently. And sometimes, it’s not your boss who is the problem, but rather a colleague either higher above or on the same level as you. Maybe they work by constantly needing assurance on tasks you’re both working on which seriously gets on your tits. Maybe they blank you when you email asking the answer to an urgent query.

We all have different working styles for a reason, if we were all robots doing the exact same thing the exact same way, there’d be no creativity or fun at all in workplaces. It’s worth remembering that it’s just a job, it’s just a mode to get money, this probably isn’t your first job and won’t be your last.

Prioritise your tasks

If there are bigger tasks and smaller tasks required of you in a week let’s say, list them and assess which is the most hated and which you like. There’s always going to be boring tasks that frustrate you or tasks that bring you slight relief or satisfaction, but alternating a ‘bad’ task followed by a good task will give you something to look forward to.

The easier task first will get your brain working and prepare you for the harder, heavier work – never start your day with a giant task if at all possible. If emailing people the same old, same old really rots you, creating templates or shortcuts to plough through the menial work will shorten the time spent too.

Celebrate your wins – no matter how small

If you have a withholding boss who never appreciates the work you’ve done, it can be hard to keep trucking on, day in, day out. Our advice? Make like a middle-aged man on LinkedIn and don’t forget to acknowledge the hard work you do. List any and all positive feedback you’ve received and any milestone or work wins you’ve achieved and keep it in a diary nearby so when you are having those absolutely volcanic level bad days, you can reflect.

Remind yourself of the impact you’ve made on colleagues around you, what you’ve achieved for the company and how your skills are getting better and stronger each day.

Images via Unsplash and Twenty20

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