“It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.” ~ John Cage
“Survey says American workers can’t get no job satisfaction; recession partly to blame.”
This was one of the headlines in today’s Chicago Tribune. Apparently, we, as a nation, are reporting record rates of job dissatisfaction.
The article goes on to talk about employees who find their jobs dull and the disconnect between the rate of inflation and workers’ salaries. For those who are interested, you can read the piece here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-unhappy-workers,0,3793430.story
But I think there’s another factor at play.
What I keep hearing over and over again from people in all kinds of professions is that they’re “lucky to have a job in this economy.” And they’re not incorrect.
But this isn’t an expression of gratitude; it’s an explanation for why they’re not leaving jobs that make them miserable or asking for what they need to make their work bearable.
I think we’re unhappy at work because, in the midst of these difficult economic times, we feel as if we have no choices.
I’ve worked jobs that I wasn’t crazy about, means-to-an-end kinds of jobs. And, for the most part, as long as no one was trying to force me into too small of a box by piling on rules the point of which I couldn’t understand, or demanding an intellectual/ emotional commitment I couldn’t, with integrity, give, I was fine to come in, do what was asked of me, make my money, and leave.
I was happy to sit in the corporate cage so long as the door was left open; I stayed years in jobs like that. But I warned more than one boss that if they tried to lock me down, I was likely to beat myself to death on the bars… and them with me.
And I meant it… being trapped in a job is a little like suffocating…
A certain amount of freedom seems to be a basic human need. Having choices means we have power over our lives. And feeling disempowered means feeling discontented… if we don’t feel we have any control over our work life, it’s no surprise that we are unhappy.
The truth is that there are always choices… powerlessness is a perception, and it has nothing to do with reality.
There are always means of improving where we are standing, alternative ways of looking at our situation… and if we can’t find our way through the fear and the despair, that’s when we need to call on our support system to help us see with new eyes, to recover the choices that can make all the difference.
“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’” ~ John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein
Bravo!