Change jobs or change at work?
Jacek Jokś
As Forbes reports, Polish women and men are becoming bolder in their decision to change jobs. The belief, nurtured for generations, of one job for life is going away, replaced by dynamism, courage and a broadly understood need for change. Before we decide, however, it's worth pausing for a moment and thinking about both the real reasons why the current place or tasks seem unsatisfactory, and whether it's the job change that's really the point.
The topic of changing jobs is an issue that is virtually endless. Probably because - sooner or later - it affects each of us. There can be various reasons for this: a poor atmosphere at work, a demotivating superior, stress, limited opportunities for development, a mismatch between the employee and the organizational culture, low wages or private issues that determine, for example, a change of residence. All these situations have one thing in common: a sense of emptiness or lack. How do we cope when we feel that something is missing? Satisfaction, fulfillment, joy, desire, inspiration? Perhaps meaning? We can distinguish at least two - quite different - strategies of action:
- decision to change jobs and
- decision to transform jobs.
While the first seems fairly obvious, the second may need clarification. For several years, research has been conducted on the sense of happiness at work, on what makes an employee feel happy and satisfied. While this is still an oxymoron for some - happiness and work - it turns out that a happy employee is - business-wise - a more effective employee. For much longer, researchers have been looking for factors that influence employee engagement. As reported in the latest Gallup Institute's State of the Global Workplace report, engaged employees make up only 20% (and this is data from the 2020 edition of the report, in previous years the number was even lower, for example, in 2012 it was only 13%)!
In addition, one in four employees is extremely unproductive, i.e. one who not only does only his minimum, but also complains and infects his colleagues with his attitude, teases negative thinking and work.
The factors mentioned, according to the researchers, include a sense of meaning in one's work, a sense of agency, the ability to take responsibility for one's tasks or independence. A trend that is entering the Polish market is job crafting. Its premise is that an employee's efforts to adjust his or her work according to his or her predispositions and preferences should influence his or her involvement and sense of purpose at work.
Job crafting as an alternative to changing jobs
Very often the place where we work is important to us. It meets our needs (distance, family logistics, good atmosphere and others). However, we feel that something is wrong. We don't feel the readiness and need for radical change. But something is nonetheless captivating. In such situations, we often - albeit unconsciously - take steps to make
the workplace more attractive. We look for what will give more joy and fulfillment. From seemingly trivial things, such as rearranging the desk or changing the place or furnishing the office, to issues related to the scope of tasks, responsibilities, planning one's own development with the supervisor.
This is a good time to reflect on your current level of satisfaction with your workplace. It's a good time to not only intuitively but consciously take steps toward a better job fit for yourself. How? First, look for an answer as to whether the difficulties I am noticing are related to tasks, relationships, or my attitude toward work. If the answer is about the scope of tasks, we can ask ourselves the following questions:
- What tasks do I have to work on? How much time do they take up? What are my priorities?
- What are my talents? What are my strengths? What can I do, do I know?
- What do I love to do? What activity makes me lose track of time?
- To what extent is what I do consistent with what I am good at?
- What thoughts come to my mind now? How do I feel about it?
- What is important to me at work? What values do I live by?
- To what extent is what I do consistent with what is really important to me?
Once you have (honest) answers to the above questions, it's a good idea to prepare a short, yet concrete, action plan:
- What ideas come to your mind so that you can get more out of your talents at work?
- What small thing can you already do tomorrow that will make you feel better?
- What do you need from yourself/others to make your work give you more satisfaction?
- What will you do as a result?
Task modeling is nothing more than taking responsibility for how things are and what I will do about it. It is - to put it briefly - taking matters into my own hands and managing work according to my needs and desires.
The same is true for transforming relationships and attitudes - but here it is worth reaching for the support of, for example, a career coach, who will skillfully help to look at relationships at work (for example, by working in a systems approach). Changing attitudes - understood as changing
thinking or changing optics - often requires cooperation with an experienced coach (who has, for example, tools for working with beliefs) and sometimes even a therapist.
Jenny Rogers further encourages finding and analyzing offers, preparing solidly for interviews and negotiations, and taking the job in harmony with oneself. She also points out that what helps an employee a lot in the new context of working life is to participate
in a coaching process that is empowering and supportive - especially during the first 100 days of a new job.
Change the job or change (tasks, relationships, mindset) at work? Let the answer to this question already resound in each of us individually.
That leaves strategy one - changing jobs. Then, as Jenny Rogers writes, it is worth seeking answers to the following questions:
One thing is for sure: it's good to occasionally stop the speeding career train we're in, go out to the station, look around, look at the world, look again at the vehicle we were on a moment ago and think, do I want to get back on this particular train (with all its benefits and drawbacks - and if so, what am I going to change for the better), do I change to another train, going in a different direction, or is it high time to change modes of transportation? I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Here's to the moment of decision. Because there is no right or wrong - wisdom flows from every decision.
