Loving your job can significantly improve your well-being and career success. It can lead to increased productivity, better mental health, and a more fulfilling work experience. To cultivate a love for your job, consider focusing on aspects you enjoy, setting new goals, improving your workspace, and seeking ways to connect with colleagues.
What is ‘work’?
‘Work’ is a hard word to define. One person’s idea of work can be another person’s idea of leisure. Something that you dislike doing at work, you might quite enjoy in a leisure setting. Reference: http://www.myfuture.edu.au/getting-
Why do we work?
Let us first consider why we work, or look for a job. Here are what some people say:
- For the money of course.
- To be in control of my life
- To supply my service which is needed by others.
- To practice the skills I have learnt.
- For survival. A basic necessity.
- For procurement of food, shelter and clothing for me and my family.
- For companionship and a sense of belonging.
- For self-actualization and for prestige.
I can go on and on. Look at the way many people suffer to get a job. How many people actually get a job of their choice? I am sure it will be less than 5% of employees. In developing countries where the job market is so restricted and actually closed sometimes, what do job applicants do? Do they accept the jobs given them, terms and conditions noted, hoping they will get better? Suppose the job is a temporary one, a contract which is renewed every six months but never gets confirmed or made permanent, what happens? Due to the surge in cost cutting measures employers have adopted, job security is now at stake. Can you love a job you are not secure with? People get job satisfaction when they work. After all, their pay enables them fulfil their important needs.
Can you Love your Job?
Despite all this, I strongly believe that unless we have a change of attitude towards our jobs, we will continue to let the risks faced on the job get to us and make us more vulnerable. I sometimes liken the love of one’s job, to loving one’s body. Look at how we make sure our bodies look beautiful, use different creams and lotions to smell good, put on appropriate clothing to protect ourselves from the vagaries of the weather, attack from animals, as well as from fellow human beings! Can we call this risk management of our bodies? Ha. Ha. Likewise if you like or love your job, you will do your best to protect your job by avoiding or minimizing risks or anything that can make you lose your job.
I decided to go online to read a debate about loving one’s job. Here are some comments from a few young persons in America, where there are more job options and varieties, as well as availability. The following are some comments, some with names and others anonymous. Very interesting and insightful.
ANONYMOUS: “The things is, if you love your job, you won’t think of it as a job, a means to an end or just a source of income, but a source of happiness. There’s a difference when you just get by, than when you are truly happy about what you are doing. It makes everything you earn or buy worth it.”
SARAH PARK: “I don’t think that you really have to love your job in order to be happy. It is more important that you love the people you work with and have a harmonious working relationship with them.”
LILY: “Wouldn’t life be easier and happier overall if Every Single Person loved their job? Of course. And yet, that just is not possible or realistic. I agree with several other commenters that merely “liking” a job can often be good enough, as it gives you the means to enjoy so many other parts of life (via flexible hours, decent salary, etc.). However, one other thought occurred to me…this debate is only an issue of those who are privileged. As you stated, there are many jobs throughout the world that may not be pleasurable, but they still need to get done. It seems offensive for a person to declare from the proverbial ivory tower (of education, privilege, and opportunity) that all others ought to make this effort to LOVE THEIR JOB, because otherwise they are wasting their life and will have regrets. For the people in the poverty-stricken countries or areas (both in the U.S. and elsewhere), a job is a means to survival. “Liking” or “loving” a job is probably not even a consideration, much less an option in a potentially flexible situation”.
JORDANN: “I don’t love my job. I like it. Sure there are days that I’m totally engaged and can work for eight hours without taking a break, and yes sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a great idea for work, but generally speaking, I just like it, no more, and I’m completely ok with that”.
ANONYMOUS: “The way I see it we spend 5 days a week, 9-5pm working. That way over half of our life at work!!. If we don’t enjoy it, what sort of a life will you have lead if you have spent almost two thirds of it miserable”?
BRIAN: “Love your spouse, your kids, your friends, your faith and your hobbies. These are worthy of falling in love with. Find a career you can find a certain level of satisfaction with and that helps provide and enhance life for those you love. If you end up loving your work, that’s icing on the cake”.
ANONYMOUS: “Hmm I’ve gotta say I sort of disagree. I think it’s important to love your job because even if you are in a happy medium (you like your job, it’s ok) you may eventually start to hate it. Plus since you will be spending most of your life working, it’s probably best to do something you love than something that is just ok and pays the bills”.
MARY: “No one loves their job 100%. I am close though, I love my job 95% of the time. Let’s face it, it varies. My threshold is 51%, you should like your job more than you don’t. If you cannot meet that threshold, you should either leave the company or change careers. No one should hate their job or career more than they like it”.
FRANK: “This a topic that hits home right now. I think you’re right that it’s fine not to love work. After all, it’s freaking work (please, I hate that “find a job you love” quote, too). So I would say I like my work. Some days I love it. Other days are tough. So what. The real hang up for us is that my work demands so much of my time and brain, that the money I earn from my job doesn’t really allow me to enjoy life. And therein lies the problem. Loving/hating a job isn’t a major issue for me. But a job that takes over your life is”.
KATRINA: “I think there are some jobs out there that require you to love what you do, otherwise the job will chew you up and spit you out. For example, my husband is studying to become a pastor. We have realized that the demands of the job are so taxing that the only way he will be able to stay a pastor is if he’s truly passionate about it.
However, I agree with you that it is unrealistic to expect that everybody should love their job. I wouldn’t categorize my current career as my dream job, but it helps pay the bills and it’s not so emotionally draining that I can’t enjoy my time off”.
ALEX: I think the concept of “job = passion = happiness” is our society’s really depressing updated version of the American Dream.
I’m with you – I like my job enough, I like my coworkers, I like my paycheck. Would I do it for free? Hell, no. Do I like what it enables me to do? Yes. Because of my job, I can have a safe, comfortable apartment, take a trip, and buy things that I want/need.
I would rather work moderately hard and have a stable line of income than struggle to “make my dream come true.”
Dear readers, what do you think of the above comments? Does any of them apply to you? Of course yes.
To be continued
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alberta Quarcoopome is a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers, and CEO of ALKAN Business Consult Ltd. She is the Author of Three books: “The 21st Century Bank Teller: A Strategic Partner” and “My Front Desk Experience: A Young Banker’s Story” and “The Modern Branch Manager’s Companion”. She uses her experience and practical case studies, training young bankers in operational risk management, sales, customer service, banking operations and fraud.
CONTACT
Website www.alkanbiz.com
Email:alberta@alkanbiz.com or [email protected]
Tel: 233-0244333051/ 233-0244611343
The post Risk WATCH with Alberta Quarcoopome: The only way to do great work is to love what you do- Steve Jobs (1) appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.
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