Sometimes you
know your job just isn’t right for you. Maybe you’re in the wrong field, don’t
enjoy the work, feel surrounded by untrustworthy coworkers, or have an
incompetent boss. Most people would tell you to find something that’s a better
fit. But that may not be possible. There are many reasons you may not be able
to leave: a tough economy, family commitments, or limited opportunities in your
field. So what do you do when you’re stuck in the wrong job?
What the
Experts Say
According to
Gretchen Spreitzer, professor of management and organizations at University of
Michigan’s Ross School of Business and coauthor of “Creating Sustainable
Performance,” people are highly dissatisfied when their job has no meaning or
purpose to them, provides little opportunity to learn, or leaves them depleted
at the end of the work day.
Whatever the
reason you are unhappy, you don’t have to just live with it or quit. In fact,
even if you are able to find another job, staying put may be the best option.
“Job searching and changing jobs is not a trivial matter. It is often costly to
career momentum and earnings as much as it is a boon,” says Amy Wrzesniewski,
an associate professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of
Management and coauthor of “Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want.” The
good news is that there is usually more leeway to alter your job than you
think. “There are often real areas for movement and change that people tend not
to recognize,” she says. Here’s how to make the most of an imperfect job
situation.
Look at
yourself
Whether or not
you are satisfied with your job often has to do with your disposition, says
Sigal Barsade, the Joseph Frank Bernstein Professor of Management at The
Wharton School. Some people are naturally inclined to be unhappy, while others
have a brighter take on life. Before you declare your job a bad fit, take a
look at yourself. Barsade says it’s worth asking: Are you just the kind of
person who tends to be dissatisfied? This understanding may not make you like
your job better, but may make you think twice before you look for a new position.
Find meaning
Speitzer’s
research shows that finding more meaning in your work can dramatically improve
job satisfaction. Barsade agrees; she recommends looking at your job
responsibilities through a different lens. For example, if your position
involves menial tasks, try to remember they are stepping stones to a longer
term goal and you won’t be doing them forever. Or, if you are in a field that
is emotionally taxing, like nursing or social work, remind yourself that while
you are tired at the end of the day, you are helping others. It also helps to
connect with colleagues. Seek out opportunities to show compassion and express
gratitude. Spend time with coworkers you like. “Stronger emotional connections
at work lead to a myriad of positive physiological and social effects,” says
Barsade.
Alter what
you do
If you can’t
change your perspective, you may be able to shift your job responsibilities.
And you don’t necessarily have to transfer departments or get a promotion to do
it. Spreitzer and Wrzesniewski suggest using a job crafting exercise to
redesign your job to better fit your motives, strengths, and passions. “Some
people make radical moves; others make small changes” in how they delegate or
schedule their day, Wrzesniewski says. While the former might require approval
from your manager, the latter often doesn’t. For example, if your most
enjoyable task is talking with clients, but you feel buried in paperwork, you
might decide to always speak with clients in the morning, so you’re energized
to get through the drudge work for the rest of the day. Or you might save
talking with your clients until the end of the day as a reward.
Change who
you interact with
If it’s not the
work you dislike but the people you work with, you may be able to change that
too. Wrzesniewski says she has seen people successfully alter who they interact
with on a daily basis to increase job satisfaction. Focus on forging
relationships that give you energy, rather than sapping it. Seek out people who
can help you do your job better. Wrzesniewski gives the example of workers at a
hospital who were responsible for cleaning patients’ rooms. They relied on a
centralized dispatch to tell them when rooms were open and what products were
safe to use based on the occupant. But dispatch didn’t always have the most
up-to-date information. This meant the workers couldn’t do their jobs as well
as they wanted to, leaving them dissatisfied. When they developed relationships
with the clerks on each ward, they received more accurate information and were
able to do a more efficient job of cleaning. Of course, if your relationship
with your boss or your coworkers is especially difficult, you may not be able
to work around them. “Job crafting can’t turn around any job situation. It’s
not a cure-all,” Wrzesniewski says.
Resist
complaining
When you’re in
the wrong job, it can be tempting to moan about it to others. But it’s not
advisable. “Complaining about your job is a recipe for trouble. You never know
how the complaints may be shared with others in the organization,” says
Spreitzer. Plus you may drag others down with you. If you are unhappy, it’s
better to focus on what you can change not grumble about what you can’t.
Keep options
open
The improvements
you make to your job situation may make things more tolerable, but you should
always be open to the next thing. “You can improve your job but you can also be
on the lookout for new opportunities,” says Speitzer. Be sure your resume (e.g.
your LinkedIn profile) is up to date and that you are continually meeting
people in the field you want to be in.
Principles to
Remember
Do:
·
Make connections with people
you like at work
·
Assess what you don’t enjoy
about your job so that you can minimize the time you spend doing unwanted tasks
·
Keep your options open — you
may not be able to leave your job now, but circumstances may change
Don’t:
As Assume that the job is the
problem — you may be prone to being dissatisfied
·
Think you’re stuck — there is
usually more leeway to alter your job than you think
·
Complain incessantly about your
job and bring others down
·
Case Study #1: Integrate your
interests into the job
Thomas Heffner
is an engineer at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, a
university-affiliated research center that contracts with the Department of
Defense. When Thomas took the job eight years ago, he started off doing purely
technical work focusing on radio frequency design and radar analysis. He knew
pretty early on that this work wasn’t his passion. “So much of what we do is
done in isolation. We have classified labs where I might be the only person
typing away,” he says. About five years into the job, he took on a project
manager role, thinking it would allow him to interact more with people. Still
most of his tasks — managing schedules, developing contracts, reviewing
documentation — involved working alone. Thomas thought about looking for
another job, one that suited him better, but he couldn’t. He and his wife were
having a second child and it wasn’t a good time to make a move, especially
given the tough job market. Instead, he started taking classes in positive
organizational psychology and found ways to integrate this interest into his
work. He offered to do presentations on positive organizational scholarship. He
first spoke to his own group and then at brown-bag lunches, which were open to
everyone in his 5,000-person center. He also approached his company’s training
and development office about developing a course that uses positive psychology
to teach innovation and creativity. The staff in that office encouraged him to
create and teach the course. While these new projects are outside of his scope
of work, he still does all of the things his project manager role requires.
And, he has been able to reduce his administrative workload by delegating
certain tasks to his team members who were eager to take them on. “I was able
to make room for the things I wanted to do,” he says. And it’s paid off.
“Before I started making changes, my job satisfaction was probably about 3 [on
a scale of 1-10]. I’m making small changes; it’s nothing earth shattering, but
it’s now up to a 7.” By finding other ways to spend time doing what he enjoys
most — learning, teaching others, spending time with people — he believes he
can boost that up to an 8 or 9.
Case Study #2:
Start doing the job you want
Nine years ago, when Shammy Khan took a job at a contract manufacturer based in Texas, he knew it wasn’t the perfect job for him. The position was in account management and required Shammy to handle routine, day-to-day work related to one of the company’s clients. Shammy felt his strengths lied elsewhere. “I was more interested in growing businesses and putting deals together than servicing existing clients,” he says. Yet he was spending less than 5% of his time doing that. After a year on the job, he completed a job crafting exercise, which helped him realize that he would be happier focusing more on new customer deals, which he saw others doing full time. He approached his manager and explained why he was the right person to cultivate a potential client in a market — large scale electromechanical integration services — the company had never served. His boss was convinced. Shammy’s title and role didn’t change but he shifted his attention to developing and acquiring the capabilities needed to win the account. The client is now one of his company’s top six customers. Based on that success, Shammy was promoted to vice president and is now focused exclusively on new ventures, strategic markets, and business development.
About the
Author: Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review and the
author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict at Work. She writes and speaks
about workplace dynamics
Article Source: