I recently had coffee with a woman I'd just met. (We were introduced by a mutual friend.) She has just started a new job with a big local company and as soon as we sat down she went on a complaining rant:
There is too much office politics!
Too many meetings!
Too many rules and guidelines!
No freedom to do your own thing!
If you've worked for a large company -- and I have -- it was a pretty common list of complaints, all of which I could definitely relate to from my past experience. But as I listened to her, I had this eureka moment and I HAD to share it here:
As a do-everything-myself-entrepreneur, I secretely envied many of the things she was complaining about!
I miss having colleagues to distract me from my work sometimes.
I miss having meetings -- the good kind, the productive kind -- and the free lunches that often came with them.
I'd love for someone else to come up with some guidelines instead of it being all my responsibility.
I love the freedom to create and to come up with ideas and implement them, but it's exhausting and I miss having someone tell me what to do once in a while.
Moral of the story? Stop complaining about your job for a bit and make a list of three things you really like about it. (Good food at meetings counts, by the way.) The grass might always seem greener -- and I admit that it often does to me -- but your job might be very appealing to someone else at the same time.
6 comments so far...
Flag as inappropriate Posted by amanda on 3rd September 2008
Flag as inappropriate Posted by tkd_mama on 18th February 2008
Flag as inappropriate Posted by Mel on 16th February 2008
Flag as inappropriate Posted by Kate on 16th February 2008
Here are my three things about my current projects as a WAHM:
No real deadlines to meet.
No voicemail to check.
Quiet workplace.
Flag as inappropriate Posted by Diane on 16th February 2008
Flag as inappropriate Posted by Mandy Nelson - Dandysound on 15th February 2008