Why you must love your job to thrive

Nairobi; Kenya: Many job holders exhibit the tendency to dislike their jobs. In fact, many will openly voice this dislike to anyone who cares to listen.

From an employer perspective, having an employee that hates his or her job is a serious liability. These people are hardly as productive as required.

Their negative feelings are a serious block to learning, teamwork and overall progress. Such people have to be pushed to do the bare minimum, require strict supervision and cannot be trusted to take care of a team.

And due to their don’t-care attitude, they cannot be trusted with sensitive positions that call for a lot of responsibility.

Radiate energy

On the other hand, people who love their jobs are highly productive, efficient, effective and trustworthy. They are considered assets and are well remunerated by most employers.

Such people radiate energy and affect everyone along their path with their positive energy, enthusiasm and confidence. It is an open secret that people who love their jobs become successful.

From the foregoing, it is clear that one must learn to love their job to thrive. This is not difficult to do.

To start with, ensure your career goals are clear. Good goal setters understand that careers transcend across employers and you will not get a better job if you cannot handle the current one well. Such people put in their best, despite the challenges, and eventually emerge winners.

You also need to appreciate your current job. There are no perfect jobs anywhere, and difficulties are to be expected around every corner. But if you have the right attitude, you will see these as mere hurdles that, once conquered, create a perfect doorway to a new horizon.

One of the most common reasons employees hate their job is difficult and overbearing colleagues and bosses. Difficult people are to be found everywhere, be it at work, home or in social places.

Do not jeopardise your career because of a boss or colleague. Simply learn how to navigate around them or escalate your issues to the human resources department for action.

Some job hatred may stem from depressed individual capacity. As such, it is important to adopt a culture of continuous learning. Look out for new avenues for personal and organisational development, and strive to stay ahead of the pack. This way you will not only be effective, but also very attractive at work.

Manage expectations

And ensure you manage your expectations. Unusually high expectations can lead to disappointments that in turn produce apathy at work.

Generally, seek to identify and isolate the causes of apathy towards your job. Once this is done, you can begin to deal with the issue rather than bury your head in the sand and expect things to change magically.

Have you tried everything and still don’t like your job? Maybe it is time to send out applications for a different position, or think about changing careers. However, a career change should be done as a last resort, and preferably after professional consultation.

The writer is a human resource specialist with Peoplelink Consultants Ltd. Email: goretti@peoplelink.co.ke