Nigel 
August 3rd,2009
Why does my job always leave me like this?
Happy in your work?
Some jobs are likely to be bad for your health,either physically or mentally. There’s a good article about this on the Yahoo Hotjobs blog. It’s called Best jobs for your health. (Click the highlighted words to follow the link.)
Some jobs are toxic because of what they are, or the type of people you have to work for. That’s what the Yahoo article is about. They also suggest ways of improving things if you’re stuck in such a job.
Others are likely to be damaging for some individuals because they’re a bad match for you. Sometimes you only discover this when you find your chosen career is driving you up the wall,and you finally decide to look for something that suits you better.
It’s also an important consideration when planning a career.
Of course,no normal person does a complete assessment of themselves and the nature of their options. Many people have to take whatever work they can get,especially in a major recession. However if you’re able then it’s good to do a bit more than one of my past students.
He was 17 when he announced to me and the class that all he wanted for his future was to make a lot of money. He has probably been successful at it,but I took the liberty of saying,“Your parents are rich and they’re not happy.”
His answer was swift and self-assured. “Ah yes,but I’m going to make MORE money than them.”
Some of you out there will be moving towards a career,or plucking up courage to try to switch,so I thought in my next post I’d mention some of the things worth taking into account about yourself in those situations. You won’t use everything on my list,but there’ll likely be something there which triggers useful thoughts.
This is a good thought…I switched careers in my early 30′s because the one which had seemed natural to me at 17 turned out to be incredibly unenjoyable for a variety of reasons. I now do something that “gets me out of bed in a morning”. I reckon a good way of thinking about this is as follows:If your career gets you out of bed in a morning,it’s probably at worst mildly beneficial to you,and is probably improving your quality of life in general. If it doesn’t,then at best it will be doing you no positive good,and at worst is probably degrading your life in some way.
Find something that gets you out of bed…it certainly doesn’t need to involve pots of cash,but it probably won’t be too detrimental if it does…