If you hate your job, then get a new one!

I don’t understand people who go to work and do nothing but whine about how horribly overburdened they are, or just complain about their work or work environment in general. If your job is too difficult for you, or you hate it so much then put in your two weeks notice and find a new one. The problem – I know – is that people are lazy, and that people with these bad attitudes feed on others feeling miserable as well, so it’s easiest for them not to look for a job they’d enjoy and to pull their co-workers into their seething pool of despair.

These people make me angry, and I’d like to punch them all in the nose.

Now, as a disclaimer, I’m not making any reference to my own job or workplace. Everyone here is happy to be here and happy to be doing what they do. And if they’re not they keep it to themselves. Positive attitudes and friendly co-workers make everyone in the office happier, and I think more productive. Who wants to work hard in an office where no one is happy? What would the purpose be anyhow? I’ve seen a lot of this in my short time period in the work force, and it makes me sad to know how many organizations out there consistently employ unhappy, unmotivated, unproductive people. And to think of the people that would be so grateful to have one of these jobs. Someone whose life might be completely changed for the better by having the job that someone else wastes and complains about. It makes me sick.

People that spin their heads and wave their hands in the air claiming to be “too busy” are full of it. No one is too busy to do anything – nothing in life is that important. And if there’s a problem then it’s probably associated with the person themselves. Too many files? Be more organized. Too many people to call? Work on your time management. I think this is often a mixed case of people a) thinking they are more important in the grand scheme of things than they really are and b) disliking their job.

Expanding on point a) above, people have a really inflated sense of ego that comes along with a title at work. People feel that their title actually means something more than it really does. I’ve studied several organizations that solve this problem by throwing out titles entirely, or by using one common title for everyone. Gore & Associates, Inc., the company that manufactures GoreTex waterproof sports material among other things, runs their entire business with nothing but Associates. Everyone is an Associate, from the secretary to the CEO (which don’t exist obviously). Using some other interesting practices – they never have more than 100 people in one work unit or office – they have been an extremely successful company (for more information on this organization you can refer to Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference).

It fascinates me that we can live in a place where people are afforded so much opportunity, and could feasibly do something in life that made them truly happy. Yet people stay, for years sometimes, in jobs they hate, working with people they don’t really like but delight in making miserable, and not pursuing their own happiness in life. It’s baffling, yet all I can think is that by doing so the people like that are only making it easier for me and others who care about their lives resulting in a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. I can only hope the best for anyone that feels the same.