The Career You'll Love

When did we get so darned serious?

Yeah, things are rough. There’s a lot of stress, a lot to worry about. Work never ends – if you’re lucky enough to have a job.

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It happens.

Here you are in the store, and you run across a friend. She’s with another person, and makes the connection that perhaps the two of you might be able to help each other. So with no notice, you’re asked to talk for 30 seconds about what you do – and relate it to this other person. Terror sets in.

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I got a note from a reader pointing me to this Bschool blog post: 10 Incredible Team-Building Trips You Wish Your Company Would Do.  Of course, these examples are so notable precisely because they’re so far outside our normal experience.

Actually, I’m not a great fan of doing outrageous things that often.  In my view, parties and events should be proportional to the impact of what’s being celebrated.  I would imagine that there might have been a pretty outrageous party after NASA landed the first man on the moon.

But I wouldn’t think it would be good to have outrageous parties for relatively normal events.  With that mentality, you end up with an over-the-top culture like Enron or AIG.

So here’s today’s thought to consider:  Celebration is good, whether it’s work-related or personal.  What would be proportional to the emotional impact you’d like it to have?

Perhaps that’s an interesting thought as we consider what to do for our sweethearts for Valentine’s day!

In the current economy, companies are struggling to do more with less. That translates to more work with fewer people. Which means that, if you’re lucky enough to have a job, you’re probably struggling to keep up with all the work that needs to be done.

At some point, things are going to break down.

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I’ve seen more and more people for whom the concept of a lunch break has effectively disappeared. There’s so much to do, and spending time on a break seems like a waste. So lunch is wolfed down at your desk, and work continues on.

But here’s the thing: Done properly, a break makes you MORE productive for the rest of your work.

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Work’s been tough today, you’re wiped out and ready to go home. But before you do, your work will go much easier if you take a few minutes to wrap things up.

If you don’t, your brain will continue to remind you about the work pressures, even when you’d rather be doing more important things with your family.

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Getting going in the morning is tough enough. First you drag your body out of bed, get your family and yourself ready for the day, grab that first cup of coffee or tea, and your brain starts to wake up.

Before you open up your e-mail, though, there’s some other important things you need to do.

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Our society would like us to believe that we’re defined by our careers and the contributions we can make through our work. Everything else we do is just slacking off, taking from society.

Wrong!

Society is defined by how we interact as a group, and how we progress toward the ideals that we hold.

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I’ve worked for some managers over my career that I would classify as “hard drivers.” They focus strongly on getting results, they make challenging demands, and they’re not so great at offering support and feedback.

The result is that I become increasingly resistant, I get pushed into over-work, and I don’t like working for them because it seems that no amount of hard work is ever enough.

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