03.07
The decline of job satisfaction in the USA
I was really surprised to read that so many Americans say they dislike their jobs. This article has taken a stab at explaining this trend and it all sounds fairly rational, but what I can’t get past is… how in the world could so many people whine so openly about the jobs that pay them money and support their lifestyles. I get it, you can be discontent with where you are — because you made a wrong move in the first place, or because things are dead ending — but why do you stay and put up with the misery of the situation anyway? Doing something about it, perhaps? Like talking to your boss, or looking for a new job?
Granted, the former isn’t always the best idea. The boss could be a douche who’s not reasonable, and an attempted conversation may precipitate an even worse situation. But it could also result in a productive strategy session that would put you on a better path.
The latter is always an option. What sort of a sense does it make to hate your job, to answer some little surrey about how unhappy you are with it, and not to actually be doing something about improving your situation? When I first saw this article, asked that same question on my Facebook profile. Overwhelmingly, people said “it’s not that simple, you can’t just switch jobs”. I didn’t get it. What’s not that simple?
If it’s time to change jobs, then you just get on it and do it. If you can’t change jobs because of X, Y and Z, then you don’t complain about it, because you know exactly why you are staying. In both cases, I just can’t accept that someone will actually dare to complain about their current job. To anyone! I think the rule is that for as long as you are at a job, you must love it. No exceptions. If anyone asks: you love your job. If you’re investigating other jobs: you love it, but it’s time to explore and grow. If it’s too soon after you started there: you love the people, but didn’t know how the job would work until you got in bed with them. Never should you say to anyone, under any circumstances, that you’re not loving your job, your company or your colleagues. It’s toxic for you and it’s certainly not what you want to project out there.
Back to the “it’s not that simple” position. I agree, the hard part is to decide that it’s time to move on and find a place that makes you feel happy and useful. Once a decision is made, it’s simply a matter of following through with it. [I love this quick gem by a mentor of mine]
I will take this a step further… and I will actually make it my goal to get an offer from at least one other company in the next few months. I will describe the process of getting to that here. The secondary purpose of these posts would be to document how one goes about finding a job in the new subfield of social media. There’s such mystery around it since it’s so new, it may actually be helpful to others to read about what resources I will tap into to accomplish my goal. Exciting!
