My Workplace Attitude Wake-up Call
I had a startling workplace attitude wake-up call recently, and I found it kind of scary.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve attended a few live and virtual facilitated discussions dissecting the challenges facing today’s workplace. The topics ranged from mental health, to AI, to general employee attitudes. The demographics of each group was quite different, but the discussions were eerily similar. Everyone agreed that workplaces were in decline.
Then the wake-up call happened
A few days ago, I was scanning through my 2010 book, Winning at Work, in search of a reference it contained. The book’s final chapter caught my attention, and it was then I realized that, over the last 16 years, workplace attitudes haven’t changed nearly as much as we think.
A blast from the past - or is it?
Take a look at my observations of workplace attitudes from a decade-and-a-half ago. Aside from the outdated references, this could have been written yesterday. (And I stand by my advice!):
WINNING AT WORK: FINAL CHAPTER
I have two questions.
It would appear that the number of people actually enjoying themselves at work is continuing to decrease at a steady and alarming rate. Even worse is that many of us can’t even imagine having fun at work. Suggest to someone that work should be an enjoyable place, and there’s a good chance you’ll be met with scornful laughter. “I don’t know what you’re smoking,” I’ve heard more than cynical voice say, “but I need some of that.”
On one hand, I find this trend most disturbing. Work shouldn’t be a penance. On the other, more mercenary hand, I console myself with the knowledge that as long as people insist on making the lives of themselves, their customers and coworkers miserable, I’ll never be out of work.
Some people get it
Two good friends of mine recently turned down tremendously prestigious CEO positions with salaries that would make a professional athlete blush. Interestingly, they both had the same explanation: they were enjoying the jobs they had, and the extra money wasn’t worth the increase in stress. One mutual acquaintance shook his head in bewilderment, saying, “Man, these guys just don’t get it.” I, however, think they do get it – better than most of us.
“It's too late to wait until tomorrow to decide whether or not you should have been happy yesterday”
Question #1
There’s the age old question, “Do you work to live, or live to work?” My first question, however, is: why not live while you’re at work? When you do the math, you’ll find that you actually spend more of your life at work than you do anywhere else. If you’re not enjoying yourself, then what’s the point? There are way too many of us out there that take ourselves way too seriously. Should you take your work seriously? Of course you should. But nowhere is it written that serious work has to be miserable work.
Highly successful people – those with the winning attitude – are able to look the individual events in their lives from a positive perspective. They can look back at their career paths and see how most every twist and turn, every challenge they faced, in some way helped them get to where they are. Sometimes an event steered them in a different direction. Sometimes it forced them to see things they hadn’t seen before. Sometimes, it was just a very painful part of the learning curve.
Question #2
My second question, then, is do we really have to look back on something in order to appreciate it? Wouldn’t our whole life experience be better if we made the effort to find the positives in things today? Yes, I recognize that it sounds terribly idealistic, but how could it hurt to try?
Success at work, however you choose to define success, is there for the taking. All it takes is a winning attitude and the application of some fundamental principles that are achievable for everyone. Maybe the best part is that we can all win at work. There are no losers in this journey – just those who don’t pack their bags and get started.
