By Manny Roman
So you are unhappy with your job. Why do you stay, then?
You often hear “People don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses.” This implies that employee turnover is the result of poor leadership, not the fit between the person and the organization. Before you decide to run to “greener pastures” ask yourself a few questions.
Is this a job from which you can get satisfaction? Ask this without thinking of the work environment. In other words, if conditions were different, new boss, more pay, better work area, would I feel satisfaction from my actual work? For example, if you are a healthcare technology service professional, does the fact that you are helping to improve health care give you satisfaction by itself, yet the lack of proper tools bothers you?
If your dissatisfaction is with the actual work that you do, you must find a way to change careers. Do it now before it gets worse.
If you are satisfied with the wok that you do, are the conditions that minimize your satisfaction people issues or environment issues? This will clarify the major cause of your dissatisfaction. For example, do you perceive your boss as an insensitive slave driver whose only motivation is making money, or is the equipment on which you work old and antiquated thus difficult to maintain?
Once you have identified the major cause of dissatisfaction – people or environment – can you reasonably expect that you can effect a change?
If people, is it a deficiency in knowledge or a deficiency in execution? Do you, or the other person, not have the appropriate knowledge of the situation to change the conditions? In this case, you will need to figure out how to get and transfer the knowledge that is lacking. Often an honest and open conversation is all that is needed to begin the process of acquiring the requisite knowledge.
If the issue is a deficiency in execution, you both may have the requisite knowledge to correct the situation but have not done so. Again, an honest, open, sincere conversation is the key.
I find that communication is the key to most issues. Communication is critical, both with yourself and with others. Lack of good communication often results in misunderstanding and unrealistic expectations.
Communication is not the telling to others, it is an open exchange of information and feelings in a non-threatening way.
Only when you have determined the true cause of you dissatisfaction with your job, and unsuccessfully attempted to correct the issues, should you be considering departing for “better opportunities.” Many find that changing jobs due to people and environment, leads them to just different people and environments, not to greater satisfaction.
Changing the location where you work and the people you work with is a big decision. Most people I speak with proclaim two issues: money and boss. I think that if they would give a true and honest evaluation of the present circumstances, they may find that things are not that simple nor are they that bad.
Practice good communication with yourself and others and you may find that people and environment can indeed change. Then, you won’t have to sell your house and move your family and your dog to a strange place where you don’t know anyone and the crime rate is higher than expected and your next door neighbor is a nuisance and taxes are higher as is the price of gasoline and groceries and your kids don’t like the school and …