#jobs #ClimbingLadders #ClimbingCareerLadders #WorkLifeBalance
Most of us grew up thinking we had to have a career.
Start at the bottom, work our way up through the ranks and advance financially along the way.
Author Bruce Feiler, in his book, “The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World,” turns the notion of a career on its head.
While some people set goals and stick with them, many others revise their passions, change direction and rethink priorities in the middle of “careers,” Feiler says.
People who are the happiest, Feiler says, are those that don’t climb. Instead, they dig, to look for their true selves.
Feiler is right in one sense. Not everyone has to, or wants to, climb career ladders.
And, people often change direction during their working lives, as he points out.
Some of these changes involve personal preference. For example, a person is hired for Job X, but observes someone doing Job Y and decides he or she would like to try that. The person may try Job Y until he or she observes someone doing Job Z, so they try that etc.
However, most changes in jobs, careers and work situations are foisted upon workers.
These changes are happening more frequently as technology and other advances reform workplaces.
These reforms are not always for the better, as far as workers are concerned.
There seems to be a constant desire among employers to want to replace people with machines. After all, machines don’t need benefits, vacations etc. And, they don’t complain.
You can already see more changes coming: driverless vehicles, artificial intelligence etc.
Perhaps at one or more of your academic graduations you heard someone tell you to follow your passion.
You later find that passion doesn’t always make you a living. Being good or knowledgeable at something is marvelous, as long as you realize that it may not help you pay bills.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon each worker to find the good thing(s) about a job, and focus on that (them). As one focuses on the good, always be thinking that all good things will come to an end.
Perhaps what makes a job good, or, at least, tolerable, could disappear suddenly. In fact, the job itself could go away.
Feiler is correct in saying that climbing, or trying to climb, a career ladder doesn’t work for everyone. Sometimes, a ceiling – justified or not – gets in the way. Sometimes, what’s at the top may not turn out to be worth the climb, and one doesn’t find that out until he or she reaches it. And, of course, the higher one climbs, the harder they can fall.
The point here is that lives are made not by happenstance, but by decisions and effort. Wise decisions may not always involve career advancement. It’s OK to decide not to climb. Regardless, whatever path you choose, give it all you have for as long as you are able, or for as long as you are allowed.
Remember, too, that your life outside of work can be more important than the job. Don’t let a job deprive you of that part of your life.
In other words, as Feiler says, it might be better to dig rather than climb. It might be better to be a chipmunk than a squirrel.
Peter
Tag Archives: work-life balance
IS YOUR JOB KILLING YOU?
#JobsThatKill #overwork #WorkKills #jobs
For 2.8 million people annually worldwide, work kills.
Today’s society, with its technological advances, has you on an electronic leash with your employer.
So says a United Nations report, discussed in an article by Karen D’sousa of Tribune News Service. The article was published May 2, 2019, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The world of work has changed, we’re working differently, we’re working longer hours, we’re using more technology,” the article quotes Manai Azzi of the U.N.’s labor agency, the International Labor Organization.
About two-thirds of the work-related mortality is estimated to occur in Asia, the article quotes the report. The greatest cause of death are circulatory diseases (31 percent of such deaths), work-related cancers (26 percent) and respiratory diseases (17 percent, the article quotes the report.
If you are fortunate enough to have a good job, you can relate to this.
The jobs that pay well keep us from being broke, but also tie us into a 24/7 work life, or close to. Therefore, we may not be financially broke, but we are time-broke.
We miss out on family activities and events. We miss out on some of the recreational opportunities we enjoy. We miss out on just plain relaxation.
It’s been said that most people today are either unemployed, underemployed or overworked.
Perhaps you can recall generations ago, when Mom generally stayed home, and Dad worked. Dad would be home every weeknight at around the same time for dinner. Perhaps he would spend time with the kids after dinner.
Then, there were the weekends, when everyone was home.
Today, there are more crazy work schedules than ever. The 9-toi-5 job is indeed rare. Chances are, if you have such a job, it’s probably not making you rich.
Not only are many folks’ schedules all over the map, they work more than eight hours a day, generally. And, when they come home, there may be work-related e-mails to check, phone calls to return, paperwork to complete etc.
People are more likely than not to get a work-related phone call at home while they are off.
There is good news in all this. It doesn’t have to be this way.
There are many vehicles out there that will allow a person to take a few, part-time off-work hours a week to build an income that could potentially make them not only financially secure, but no longer time-broke.
To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Meanwhile, try to take as much advantage as possible to the things in your life that you enjoy, or mean something to you.
Look for ways to relieve stress, be it physical exercise, pleasure reading or spending time with family and friends.
Your job may try to kill you, but you don’t have to let it. You can still do all you need to do at work, and relieve stress when you are not at work.
Don’t let work stress mess with you. Don’t let it kill you.
Peter
DON’T WORK TOO HARD?
#workhard
We’ve all had friends who have, usually as they are leaving us, wishing us well and telling us not to work too hard.
Our parents, teachers, coaches and other mentors all tell us that hard work is required to get almost anything.
So why would our friends tell us not to work too hard?
Let’s forget for a minute work-life balance, and overwork-induced stress. Our friends don’t want us to work too hard because we might give our employers more than the employers are paying for.
Most good, conscientious people don’t want to be deliberately unproductive, or give less than they know they should. Most of them want to be as productive as they can be. Some will risk their physical and mental well-being to be so.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do things right, and pleasing your boss. But there should come a point at which one asks himself, who’s working for me? If I’m working for him or her, is he or she also working for me? If I am helping him or her get what HE or SHE wants, is he or she returning the favor?
Many people believe that they work for a paycheck. They get so busy doing that, they don’t even think about their own big picture. Sure, your boss might ask you in a performance review where you want to be in five years, 10 years etc. You give some pat answer, even if you KNOW you may not want to be in that place, doing what you are doing now, all those years later.
Even people who want to be doing something different in the future are so consumed by their circumstances that they not only can see no way out, but also they won’t even consider great alternatives that may be presented to them.
Those that do consider alternatives sometimes find great things that they never knew existed. To do that, one has to be willing to look. Serendipity is great when it happens, but, generally, one has to be willing to look for alternatives to find them.
If you believe your current situation needs to change, AND you are willing to see what might be out there to help you change it, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Some may not find what they are looking for there, but others may find just the thing. You may also find not only that you can work hard for you, but others will work hard for YOU!
Polls show people dismayed, pessimistic and downright hostile to the future. But, when one looks at facts, rather than conjecture, he will likely find many good things out there to be had. He will also see that he can HAVE them by doing something a little different.
In short, don’t work too hard for someone else. Work hard for you! Very few others will work for you. Do what you need to do to make your situation better. Complaining requires energy that you need to do what you need to do.
You don’t have to abandon what you have, but you may need to have a different attitude about it. Good, hard workers in bad situations know that the situation is only temporary. They know that one day, what they want will be theirs.
Have a good mind-set about any task you perform. Always believe that the future not only can be bright, but you will make it so.
So, work hard, but have a reason, besides a paycheck, to do what you are doing. Take steps to get control of your future – control that no one but you can take away.
Peter