Loving Your Work

It's a common belief that work is nose-to-the-grindstone drudgery and that loving—truly enjoying—your job is impossible. Opinion polls find that more than half of American employees dislike at least sizable slices of their jobs; and many of us, says Dr. Sherrie Connelly, president of Los Angeles-based Work Spirit and Leadership Company and a researcher into attitudes about work, "equate work with effort and struggle." Continues Connelly: "To these people, if you're enjoying what you're doing, you're not working."

With the dawning of a new decade, however, the old attitudes are under attack. "In the Nineties, people are demanding satisfaction—meaning—from their work. They're hungering for this," says Nancy Anderson, author of Work With Passion. Dr. Dennis Jaffe, writer of Take This Job And Love It, elaborates: "It used to be that you had a good job or a bad job, and a bad job was the norm. Now everybody—not just 'knowledge' workers, but clerks, factory workers, and so on—wants a job they can love."

Does this mean we'll all be quitting our current jobs and signing on as shepherds in rural Ireland or painters in Paris? Not necessarily.

"Frequently people jump to the conclusion that they have to leave their job if they're going to find work they love," explains Howard Schechter, a Northern California-based researcher of work attitudes. "Often that's not true. What's ultimately separating us from our work are our own attitudes—the too commonly held notion that 'Work is a drag' or 'The boss is the problem.' Let go of those ideas, and you may discover the work itself isn't the problem. The real way to make changes in the workplace is to start by looking inside, at how we think about our job."

So what if you really want to raise sheep in Ireland or paint or whatever but, for now, you're clocking time in a non-ideal 9-to-5 job to pay the bills? Or, what if you're a junior corporate speechwriter when what you want to be doing is writing for the president? Even if you're waiting for that next phase in your life, you'll be a better, more effective employee—and a happier one—if you give your all to your present position, says Marsha Sinetar, author of Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow. "Most of us resist our jobs, and that benefits no one," explains Sinetar. "The antidote is to choose to be whatever I am doing now. If you're washing dishes, really wash them. If you're the boss, be the boss. You can choose to do your work responsibly and consciously, and that means willingly putting our full focus into the task we're engaged in. We can do this even while looking for something better."

A widely held thought is that some jobs are beyond loving or even liking, but that's erroneous, according to Dr. Christopher Hegarty, a Northern California consultant and author of How To Manage Your Boss. "It's your choice how you view your work. A lot of people have bought the idea that you do as little as you can for as much money as you can and get home as early as you can. Nobody wins that way. People who try to experience the joy of their labor find it—even in relatively 'meaningless' jobs by other people's standards."

"A big mistake," adds Connelly, "is to imagine ourselves in a job and think, 'I wouldn't like being a secretary' or 'I'd hate being a garbage collector.' There are many secretaries and trash men who love what they're doing. For me, driving a truck would be boring, but I know a man who drives a delivery truck and he absolutely loves his work—the customer interactions, being out on the streets. What we need to do is ask and listen to what people say about their real experiences of work and put aside our own preconceptions."

And Connelly did just that, surveying workers from business owners to fast-food cashiers in a search for the recipe for happiness in the workplace. With hundreds of interviews under her belt, Connelly says she's discovered that liking, even loving, one's job isn't the private, individual thing we would think it is. In fact, seven traits are shared by workers who love their jobs: "Wherever people enjoy their work, these characteristics are present in abundance," says Connelly.

The seven ingredients of what she terms "work spirit" are enormous energy; a positive, open state of mind; purpose and vision; a full sense of self; risk taking and living in the moment; participation in creation; and a sense of higher order, of oneness. Possess these traits, says Connelly, and work enjoyment will be strong. Job effectiveness is apt to increase too, because, explains Hegarty, "The more joyful and excited a person feels about work, the more productivity goes up. There's no question about it. Where workers are happy, they get more done."

"You'll be much more productive if you love what you're doing," agrees Anderson. "You'll know you're productive by your use of the hours you spend working, or by how much you're absent or late. Many people don't enjoy what they're doing, so they make the hours go by with endless meetings, coffee breaks, lunches, and daydreaming."

Prodded by a quest for the higher productivity needed to compete in global markets, American corporations are jumping on this "love your job" bandwagon. Carnation, Monsanto, New England Telephone and Telegraph, and Hewlett-Packard have already started programs, and others plan to soon. Ken Knaus, a sales manager at an Eastman Kodak office that's instituted a Work Spirit program under Connelly's tutelage, says his company is joining in to strengthen its relationships with customers. But there's more: "It's sure much more pleasant to come to work when you enjoy the work and the people you're doing it with." Adds Anthony Burnham, a human-resources executive at Carnation: "In previous times, employers stressed company loyalty. That doesn't work any longer. We're asking our people to align their personal interests with their work, to say 'I choose to be with Carnation.' When that happens, it's mutually advantageous. The employers who successfully create this atmosphere around both employee and employer interests will gain a competitive edge."

Despite this ripple of corporate enthusiasm, Jaffe warns: "Very few companies will take on the responsibility of creating positive attitudes for you about your work. But loving your job isn't an emotional thing that you have or don't have; you can develop positive attitudes about your work."

Of course, there are square pegs in round holes, and some people are just in the wrong job. "An engineer who truly enjoys detailed, analytical work and dislikes public contact likely won't be happy as a salesperson, no matter what," says Connelly. "It's important for a person to be in a job where the challenge matches the individual's skills. An overqualified employee will be bored. An under-qualified employee, stressed out. Either way, it's difficult to express enthusiasm for work." More often, however, it's not a mismatch between employee and job that mars work satisfaction. "We unthinkingly buy into the ideas that we're 'supposed' to grumble about our work," says Philadelphia management consultant Judith Schuster. "Trouble is, if we keep belittling our job, we'll start believing it. We could just as easily—and much more profitably—be stroking our personal enjoyment of work. It may not be done as commonly, but when it is done, the payoffs can be immense—from higher productivity and more workplace rewards through decreased stress and increased all-around satisfaction."

That said, Schuster outlines the "how to" of falling in love with your present job:

See yourself as You Inc. You're not just a cog in a wheel but a valuable, productive resource. Ask yourself what you need to do to maximize the return on this resource.

Set your own mini-goals. Make them tasks you've never done before. If you're a secretary, reorganize the files. If you're the boss, find new ways to use your products or new customers for existing products. Take on an attitude of finding ways to improve the organization as a whole. This engages your creativity.

Find something tangible in what you do. Often we see our work as a never-ending stream—of paper to be processed, customer complaints, sales calls, whatever. Break it down into bite-sized hunks, and you won't feel so overwhelmed. This boosts your satisfaction by completing jobs.

Give your job a chance. You just may find you love it. Have you created a set of negative attitudes about your work? We often talk ourselves into bad work attitudes, so take positive actions.

Do just that, and, Schechter adds, "Work can become joyful. There's a great relief that happens when we connect with our work. Work is a natural way, a crucial way, for us to express who we are."

Extensive as this movement has grown, the news that jobs can be lovable continues to surprise many. "It brings people to tears," relates Dr. Cynthia Scott, who leads a seminar on job satisfaction called Heart Work. "After a workshop in Sacramento, one man wrote, 'I didn't understand it was possible. I've felt so bad for so long.' The concept that you can really like what you do is so far removed from many people, but it's so important in achieving personal happiness and success."

Of course, Schuster's prescription won't turn every job into paradise—some positions simply are beyond salvage—but, as Jaffe stresses, "It's up to each of us to take responsibility for his or her own job satisfaction. It's not the company's job or the bosses job to make an employee happy and fulfilled. Ultimately, that's your own job." And just maybe it's the most important job of all.

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