ihatemyjob

First, I just want to say, I don’t hate my job anymore. But once upon a time, I hated my job so much that I Googled ‘I hate my job’ just to see what came up. Actually, I believe I entered a profanity along the lines of “Fork this job,” or something really close to that. (Like I said, I really hated my job.)

To my amazement, the first site listed was forkthisjob.com, which turned out to be a message board where frustrated employees could rate various employers and then leave comments as a warning to others. My employer at that time had several blistering comments and negative ratings, but not all the ratings were bad. Some people, it turns out, really do love their jobs.

I got to thinking that really, everyone should love their job, including and especially me. Why was I working at a job that made me want to shoot myself day after day after miserable day? Why was I dealing with this major problem by typing cuss words into Google? Was that really my best strategy? If not, what was?

People stay at bad jobs for lots of reasons, but my main reason (and I think a lot of people would also put this reason as their number one motivation for keeping a horrible job) was that I didn’t think anything else was possible.

Now, clearly, if you don’t believe a better job exists, your chances of finding a better job go way down.

A close second on my list of reasons for being miserably underemployed was that I didn’t know what I wanted. I knew what I didn’t want. That part was easy. But what was it that I did want? What kind of work would make me feel like I was making a real contribution instead of just selling hours of my life to a very low bidder?

I realized that those were questions I hadn’t asked myself in a very long time.

This blog is about the process I went through to find out, and the process I believe everyone goes through, in order to find work that they love. I’ve discovered that for me, this process isn’t a one-time, get-er-done kinda thing, but more of an ongoing flexible attitude towards work–an attitude that demands constant effort, honesty, and self-evaluation.

Sometimes major adjustments are forced on us as workers. Sometimes we choose to make those adjustments ourselves. Sometimes everything is fine for years and then suddenly, for no reason we consciously understand, we wake up and think, “Ick. I can’t do this for one more day. Not one more minute. I quit.”

Whatever your situation, if you hate your job, or even if you are just kind of bored at the moment, stick around. Come back. You may find something you can use.

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