I keep on going on and on about always finding a job which you like,and which you can excel in… i recently found out that these two are mutually exclusive.
I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, and he was telling me about his workplace. Although he is good at what he does (a software engineer by profression), he’s not happy at his job. Why? There were many reasons, and i felt like i should dissect them one by one.
The first and foremost was the job environment.. From what he tells me, its like a prison. They keep track of each and every minute of what their employee’s do, to the extent that each employee’s screen is captured every 30 seconds and analyzed for ‘unauthorized’ work. While from an employer’s point of view, thats all very good and dandy, it does put undue pressure on the employee. Many employer’s fail to understand the concept of providing a trusting environment in their organizations, and promote their mistrust on the employee’s. The result ? major attrition and a not-interested workforce.
There are many pro’s and con’s to this issue as well, the first and foremost being, many employee’s tend to spend a lot of their time doing non essential work, rather than being productive, which leads to the management to put a tighter control on them. This leads to a vicious cycle, where employee’s dont put their hearts in their work, and even while they work, they arent productive. Is there a solution? In the opinion of this humble blogger, the main solution is ‘trust’ and ‘empowerment’. A concept quite alien to many employee’s but if you manage to read any of the leading business articles on employee morale, keeping and building employee’s trust, then you’ll see this as the core issue. Another aspect to this solution, is hiring people you can trust in the first place, but they are the ones who charge more for their services, and many employer’s arent willing to dish out the extra cash/benefits.
Another issue with my friend was the nature of work. The organization is inherently disorganized, with little to no documentation of any sorts, and people basically work which ever way they please. This may be a good business model for the company at present, but is it long term? Having good and robust processes in an organization can help build up the morale of employee’s who then feel as if they know what they have to do. The flip side of this issue, having processes which are too beauracratic! which promotes a lot of red tape within the organizational boundaries and limits people and their creativity. Again.. is there a solution? Yes there is. Many industry models of best practices are aimed at solving these situations, and what most of them promote is.. ownership. Whoever runs the process should own it, both the good and the bad things about it. They promote the good within their functions and try to re-write/restructure the bad ones, so that they get weeded out. Its the way to evolve yourself into a highly productive team. This also makes the processes organic, changing with time, rather than static, and makes people want to follow them. Ofcourse, having good results from a process is a plus.
This brings me back to my original question.. should you like/love your job ? My recommendation to my friend, increase your quality of life (in terms of hapiness and contentment). Jobs come and go, but what they make the other parts of your life is what counts. A good job can help you lead a balanced life, with due time given to your own personal development, family needs and friends. A bad one can rob you of all these pleasures of life and give you headache’s, miseries and stress. You decide !
