“I wish we lived in a society where there were better ways to take care of our workers to help them find ways to make their work fun or to have more options to move jobs if they don’t find it enjoyable,” says Mollie West Duffy, an American expert in organizational development and leadership.
West Duffy acknowledges the weight of capitalism in the burnout many workers are experiencing.
The so-called burnout is one among many reasons why we can reach the point of not enjoying our jobs, but making the decision to quit is not an alternative for many.
However, there are strategies to try to get the best out of a job that we don’t like and grow in the process.
West Duffy, who has advised leaders of companies such as Google and LinkedIn, co-authored with Liz Fosslien the Wall Street Journal bestseller: No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work (Spanish edition expected in June : No problem. How to manage emotions at work) and Big Feelings. How to be okay when things are not okay.
Another researcher on this topic is Ana Sanz Vergel, professor of Occupational Psychology at the Norwich Business School and the University of East Anglia (England).
“Right now that is a hot topic, it is a reality,” he tells BBC Mundo.
These are the fascinating strategies they propose:
Job crafting is not a new concept, it has been attracting researchers from different countries for a few years and for the two experts it is key.
It is about modeling our work to make it more meaningful, about “making small changes on a day-to-day basis,” says Sanz.
But before that, it is important to stop and reflect on the situation in which we find ourselves.
West Duffy recognizes that it can be really overwhelming to feel like we don’t like our jobs. Therefore, she believes that it is essential to try to specify what is the main reason that has made us lose motivation.
“Assess where the mismatch occurs. Why are they not happy in that job? Does it not suit their interests?” Sanz indicates.
“Is it because there is an excess of work and you don’t have any resources to address it? For example, there is no support from the supervisor.”
“Or if, on the contrary, it is a very boring job in which there is no opportunity for development, there is no variety in the tasks or perhaps it feels that it lacks meaning for society.”
Once you know where the imbalance is, you point to proactivity.
“I always tell students that instead of thinking that life is something that happens to us, as passive subjects, life is also what we make happen to us, as proactive subjects,” says Sanz.
“You have to abandon this idea that work comes to you as something given and designed, try to redesign it too”, even in jobs that can be routine.
And he tells me about a group of window cleaners at Hershey Children’s Hospital in Pennsylvania, in the United States, where several patients suffer from cancer.
“How can we make our work more meaningful and more fun at the same time?” they asked.
And they decided to dress up as superheroes. Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and Captain America were seen through the windows.
That day, several nurses and medical center staff also wore something related to superheroes.
“The children were happy”, evokes the teacher. And so you can see in this video of the hospital:
“As a result of that, other hospitals began to do the same and in interviews with these employees they said that this small gesture had made them have fun, something we call playful work design: trying to make your work more fun” Sanz points out.
“And on the other, it changed the relationship they had with the client, the hospital, the patients. A closer relationship was created.”
According to the expert, they themselves reassessed their work: “they were no longer just window cleaners and nobody cares about that, but they felt they had a lot of value for those children in the hospital.”
That example encompasses several types of job crafting:
According to West Duffy, in the job crafting process it is important to keep in mind the reasons and motivations for which we are going to work, since that allows us to get in tune with them.
“For example, if the answer is: to support my family, when I go through the daily emotions that work generates in me, it will help me to remember it.”
He says that in his first book he included the example of a New York subway worker for whom the purpose of her job is to take care of passengers.
“And so, even when there are a lot of really difficult aspects of his job, some boring parts or days he’d rather not go, he had an overall purpose.”
When there are train delays or something unexpected happens in the system, she takes the microphone and explains to the passengers what is happening.
“On one occasion, when a train was stopped between two stations for several hours, he went through all the cars and made sure the passengers knew they were safe.”
In another example cited by the expert, baristas may have a repetitive job, but many of them make art with the coffees they prepare and improve their customers’ mornings every day. “That’s useful for you to remember.”
Waiting to get the job of your life, you may feel that your current job is a sort of parenthesis in your career, a pothole, but don’t see it that way.
As far away as it may be from your dream job, in the complex work dynamics everything contributes in terms of experience and knowledge.
“Every day in a job, even if we don’t like it, counts. Every day is a piece of Lego that builds a construction,” says Sanz.
“What you do right now is building on that job and the future job.”
For the teacher, small behaviors are key to getting the best out of the job we have.
And one of them is to step forward and speak:
“Identify your strengths and try to be proactive in telling your manager if you can make more use of them in your job, if they can give you a task that fits them better.”
“Don’t be shy and say, ‘I’m good at this, consider me for this.'”
“You have the idea that the organization has to offer and that’s true, but you also have responsibility in your career and in what you want to build for the future.”
For people who have been in a job for a long time, it may be time to think about becoming a mentor or designing a training course for other colleagues.
That can help create what West Duffy calls “human connection,” which is also key to our motivation.
For Sanz, it is also important to “identify the limitations and be proactive enough to request that training that we need to improve some skills.”
This is known as “increasing structural resources and is a way of job crafting”.
It’s about training you, learning new things that will not only help you do your job, but also have the potential to open new doors for you within the organization.
Sometimes, says West Duffy, we may feel like we have nothing new to learn in that role, and that affects motivation.
“For people who do repetitive work that can be a problem.”
“But it’s worth asking: how can I add some learning? You could, for example, think about a managerial position or ask someone from another area to do a skills exchange that allows them to train each other.”
“I think that as adults we forget that we need to be learning to motivate ourselves, something that children do all the time.”
In this process of encouraging yourself to speak, it is important to ask for feedback from your supervisor and colleagues.
Many times the problem is that we do not know if we are doing the job well or how it is perceived by others.
“That makes people feel very insecure at work,” explains Sanz.
It is also essential to ask for help, something that “many times is not done out of fear.”
“The organization also has a responsibility to create a work environment where you feel you can ask for support.”
Talking with bosses and colleagues can lead us to discover aspects that can make day-to-day life more bearable.
“For example, alternate the tasks that are very complex with the simpler ones and if the tasks are too simple and boring, try to start a new project that is challenging.”
For those who are overworked, it is essential to focus on how to reduce that overload and restructure it into mini-tasks, for example.
According to West Duffy, for some people, feeling that they have no independence at work affects their motivation.
“There are jobs where it’s impossible to get the autonomy you’d like, to have more control over your schedule or what you do each day.”
However, in others it is possible and exploring it can make a big difference.
For example, you could ask your manager to measure results instead of processes.
“If you can create your own processes, you will be more motivated instead of being micromanaged. As soon as the results are in, a manager might accept it.”
After making the initial reflection proposed by the experts, it can be discovered that the problem is not really job demands, but something that has to do with interpersonal relationships.
“It causes me stress when I do group work, they don’t listen to me in meetings, they ignore me. The supervisor always gives me negative feedback,” says Sanz.
Situations like these should not be ignored, no matter how uncomfortable they may be, much less the negative emotions you are experiencing.
“You have to talk to the person who causes you that stress and do it in an assertive way to find a solution to the problem and thus prevent it from escalating further.”
If this is not possible or does not work, it is important to seek support from another person.
“Sometimes it is a problem of workplace harassment, of bullying, more than the work task itself.”
“Organizations must offer a support network, for example, through the Human Resources department.”
“In fact, interpersonal problems are the most serious, if they become entrenched that can make the person end up leaving the organization.”
“In American society – it may be different in other countries – we tend to put most of the blame on individuals,” says West Duffy.
“We say: if you’re exhausted it’s your fault, you need to do your job better, manage your schedule more efficiently.”
“If you can’t find a way to be a parent and an employee at the same time, it’s your own fault.”
And many times the dominant message is that as a worker “you must be more resilient.”
“But the research shows that actually being resilient is really hard in an environment that is all about the individual.”
Therefore, thinking collectively can yield positive results.
“For example how can we add more breaks to our day or support working parents or help each other deal with the changes that are happening?”
West Duffy co-authored the article Stop Telling Employees to Be Resilient with Fosslien in MIT Sloan Magazine.
The piece, aimed at managers, raises the importance of creating support and dialogue systems so that teams can navigate through uncertainty and change.
“Leaders need to think about implementing best collective practices,” the author tells me.
“Having said that, if you feel comfortable as a worker to make any suggestions to the team or the manager, that would be beneficial. I think often leaders and managers it’s not that they don’t want to help their team with burnout, it’s that they themselves too. They’re out of stock.”
“They’re so busy that it’s hard for them to step back and say, how can I help my team?”
Sanz believes that it is essential to avoid staying in a toxic work environment.
“Perhaps the person ends up leaving the job because they are getting sick. Health comes first.”
“However, there are a lot of things you can try to do before you get to that situation.”
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