The Ugly Truth

Is it really that bad?

On the face of it, modern work is overbearing. The deadlines, the superiors, the necessity of it all - it can become too much at times. It's easy to become wrapped up in something that plays such a large part of your life and put work on a pedestal however it's important to take a step back once in a while to gain some perspective and ask the question "Is work really that bad?"

Work is terrifying! Or is it?

Remember when you were a child and knew your parents would find out when you did something wrong, "Oh no! My parents are going to kill me!". Think back to those feelings you experienced then, as if the world as you knew it would end...

Of course it didn't, but at the time it certainly felt as if it would. Seemingly the same happens in our adult lives, the difference between now and then is that we convince ourselves that our responsibilities now are more important than as a child. However if we were to analyse it our adult working lives have more in common with our childhoods than we might think.

In both our childhoods and working lives we build up both our parents and employers to be something they aren't. Yes both of these provide for us in different ways however there's no need to fear consequences or retribution, simply to acknowledge it in respect of those providers.

Building work up to be an evil entity benefits no one, it simply results in negative feelings towards the workplace causing a need to escape it. When it comes down to it, work isn't the be all and end all of our lives and it's good for us to realise that. If you make a mistake at work, it's generally not the end of the world but simply a learning curve to be overcome. It's difficult to condition ourselves not to put work on a pedestal, but with a bit of practice it's worth it for a happier working life.

Escaping Work

Living for the weekend

In recent years it seems the ideology of escaping work has become more and more prevalent. A strange phenomenon when you think about it. We spend our entire childhoods imagining what it would be like to have different jobs, we act them out in the form of play and ask questions as to what people do as jobs and if we can do those things when we get older. Yet when it comes to actually working we decide that we'd rather not be at work and instead procrastinate until the working day ends.

TGIF - an acronym all too familiar to workers

The question you should ask yourself is why exactly is it you want to escape work?

It's too easy to have a negative attitude towards work as a whole, narrow it down and write a list of specifics. Take an average working day and think through the days events, at what points in the day do you feel like not being at work? Think of the reasons behind feeling this way - it could be people, processes, procedures or general activities. Once you have your list, then you are ready to start addressing those obstacles.

Wouldn't you rather be somewhere you don't want to escape from?

Think about it this way, rather than escaping work why not look at it from another perspective - if you make some changes and enjoy work, you won't want to escape it. Like any change it's going to take time and it's doubtful that the changes you can make will end up making work like a holiday but it will benefit you and others around you if changes are made meaning you can tolerate work and even enjoy it.

I Blame Work

The all too obvious scapegoat

What did we blame before we had work in our lives? It's hard to imagine not using work as an excuse for stress, unhappiness or lack of energy but what if that easy fallback wasn't there? Take away that option and I'm sure you'll still be left with plenty of other causes that you previously blamed on work.

Family, friends, bills, spouses, moving home, other commitments, the list is endless. So why is it that we jump to work and can't seem to look past it as the cause of our problems?

We all have bad days now and again

Everyone has bad days at work, just as they have bad times in their lives outside of work. However it's the times at work that seem to become a focus due to the lack of control we experience when compared with our personal lives. In our free time we often have a lot more choice regarding our actions, if you are unhappy outside of work you can often communicate this and take actions to correct it. If however you are unhappy at work it may make the situation worse to voice those feelings or behave as you would if you weren't at work. Which is why we focus on work as an area that causes us to be unhappy.

One of the first steps to enjoying work is accepting that sometimes there will be situations at work that you prefer not to experience. These are what most of us refer to as bad days. The important thing to remember is that these should be infrequent occurrences, and if you are having a bad day just accept it and move on with the rest of your day.

There is a saying "tomorrow is the next day of the rest of your life" - but why wait till tomorrow? If you are having a bad day there's always time to change it and turn it around. Do what you can to turn the day around, often it's your state of mind that is controlling your day when it should be controlled by reason and logic.

If you have a couple of bad experiences during the day, don't focus on those bad experiences and transfer them to others around you. It's far better to expect that things will change and go your way, this will stop you dwelling on the negative and this will project a positive feeling to those around you. If you're projecting positive signals, others are more likely to reciprocate and this could just turn that bad day into a good day.

Modern Day Work

What's so bad about modern day work?

I'll address each of these issues separately in future chapters, however for now here is an overview of the obstacles facing workers today. I use the word obstacles as that's what they are. These aren't weights dragging us down, oppressive systems to be rebelled against or problems that need complicated solutions. Simply obstacles that we all need to meet head on and deal with in ways that suit each of us best.

As discussed previously work in the past seemed an altogether better experience, while we've established this is largely due to nostalgia there's still some differences between work in the past and work today. These differences have evolved in line with society and have changed the modern workplace into what we know it as today.


i. Distractions

It all seemed so straight forward in the past. You were paid to do a job, and that's what you did. However modern work seems to come with a lot more distractions which ultimately rely on skill sets you may not possess. For example, a typical office worker needs not only to be able to do the job they were hired to do but manage the distractions that come with it such as emails, chat systems, phone systems, calendars, meetings, administrative duties etc.

Distractions are plenty in modern day work

ii. Expectations

As well as employers expecting their employees to manage the extra distractions of modern work there are also more explicit expectations that are present alongside these implied ones. These expectations tend to come in the form of working longer hours, learning on the job, putting the company first and generally sacrificing certain aspects of home life in order to progress at work.

Expectations both implied and explicit are rife in the modern workplace

iii. Perspective

Perspective, or rather the wrong perspective, can be a huge factor in the modern workplace. A negative way of looking at things can turn a normal job into a chore and have a detrimental effect on anyone. Finding a way of looking at things that is right for you can open up possibilities and make work an altogether more enjoyable experience.

It's not just the approach to a job, as modern work becomes more complex it's easy to lose perspective as to what the job is. It is all too easy to focus on the systems and procedures in place rather than the end goal.

When in the modern workplace it's easy to lose perspective

iv. Communication

Although communication is a term used to the point of having little meaning, it is such as important aspect of work. However in recent years as society has been more lax in its standards of what is acceptable, communication in the workplace has also slipped. This can easily lead to problems and mis-understandings that cause so much frustration at work as well as employers trying to control communication with procedures.

Lax communication means problems

v. Time Management

Managing time well is a skill so few master, yet it is something we all need to manage in our lives and is an important factor at work. With so many distractions it is key to identify what actually needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. It's easy to mis-manage time and be forced to rush tasks and put ourselves under unnecessary pressure.

We all need to manage time better as it's ourselves that suffer

The Good Old Days

Ah yes, the good old days...

Even the expression "the good old days" brings with it feelings of nostalgia, and surprisingly so when referring to work in the past.

The human brain has a tendency to fondly remember past events. Our childhoods are generally happier times without the worries and stresses we have in our adult lives. Even the memories of our early working lives seem preferable when looking back into the past. Which is quite odd when you think about it, as first jobs are generally low paid and hardly anyone begins their working career in their ideal job.

Think back to your first job, was that the best job you ever had? If so, why did you leave it?

Getting over the nostalgia is the first hurdle, rather than holding onto a frame of reference that simply isn't a true representation of what past work has been like, let's dig deeper into how work actually was in the past to have a better viewpoint on our work now.

It may seem that things were better in the past. A nicer boss, better benefits, not as much workload - we all have happy memories focusing on different aspects, but think past these falsehoods and concentrate on the facts. The more you think about it, the more the negatives start to surface as well as the positives.

There were reasons you didn't like your first job, things about the role you wanted to change but ultimately there was no change. You may have been promised improvements, looked over for promotion or simply the employer itself wasn't what you thought it was. Whatever the circumstances may be, weight those two sides very carefully, as those negative associates your brain doesn't want you recalling could actually set you up to enjoy the work you do now more.

It may seem clinical, but viewing the past in this way is the best way to compare it to the present. That way you can see through the veil of nostalgia and begin to see things clearly, both the past and the present.

Was work in the past really so good?