What’s Good About This Job?

Tell me, what’s good about your job? I know you can tell me what’s annoying, frustrating, pisses you off, exhausting, exasperating, aggravating, bothersome, disturbing, irritating, troublesome, vexatious… But can you list the things that are good?

Our culture defaults to the negative. Fear based news, fear based government, and fear based profiles on dating sites. It’s everywhere. Fear can motivate us to take positive or negative action. Often we don’t even realize that we are in a cycle of fear and negativity that lead to negative thoughts that lead to negative feelings that can lead to negative actions. If we don’t catch ourselves, we may end up quitting in a fit of rage, or lashing out at a direct report, or find ourselves crying in the work bathroom. I’m as guilty of focusing on the negative as you are. It feels familiar, and therefore “natural,” to complain about what’s not working. It’s not natural; it’s learned and it can be unlearned. We’re talking glass half full or empty. It is a choice and we have the power to choose which way to view the glass.

A client was listing all the challenges she faced in her job. The company she worked for was merging with another company based across the country. She’d been offered the chance to stay in NYC and work remotely. The stress of whether she should start looking for a new job or try this out was making her anxious and fraught with worry. It was becoming hard not to panic. We met and discussed the situation. She needed to vent and vent she did. As she described her concerns, she began naming a long list of complaints in great detail. After a while, I asked her to write them down in a list. As she began writing, she realized that it was actually just 4 main items that concerned her. The venting was important; it’s valuable to release the anxiety in a safe space and it was this release that enabled her to narrow it down to 4 main issues. Here they are:

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