How Empowering Oneself at Work Can Lead to Career Happiness
Workplace happiness is critical to your career success.
But what if you have a micromanaging boss, you loathe your day-to-day tasks, feel like you’re on the wrong career path, don’t have co-worker friends, are not fond of your office or WFH office environment… amongst the many work complaints out there?!
So how can you find happiness in your unhappy workplace, regardless of current conditions?
Believe that you can still find ways to empower yourself to be happy at work (where you likely spend the majority of your waking hours) so you can succeed happily on your own terms.
Being happy at work doesn’t mean you have to adore every task you work on throughout the day — it means you allow yourself to be healthy and take breaks throughout the day so you can be an energetic, alert, and focused employee.
I acknowledge that there is a lot of pressure to carry a heavy workload, but there is also a direct correlation between happy employees who can produce brilliant work and unhappy employees that eventually end up slowing everyone else down because they are burnt out.
Powering through your workload without any breaks or focusing on your health and well-being will only hurt yourself and your company in the long run.
When was the last time you took the recommended hourly computer breaks to save your back and your eyes?
Skipping the gym, not stretching during the day, skimping on sleep, missing doctor appointments — not practicing self-care in general — will only hurt you and your career in the long run.
Keep your life balance in check — if you must work overtime and answer client emails at midnight, why shouldn’t you get that same flexibility back and be able to go to a doctor's appointment or run an errand during lunch?
A lot of the time, we trap ourselves with our own strict rules and give up our power to others when we don’t really need to.
Maybe you feel self-conscious about taking an hour to do lunch with a friend, or guilty for taking off a little early to get that manicure you need to feel put together… but do you think your boss gives it a second thought when you are staying hours late multiple nights a week to get work done?
Bosses & executives take note: this is where mutual respect and flexibility comes in — sometimes you work late, or sign in on Sunday to get shit done… and then sometimes you get to go shopping during lunch or take an extra hour sleep in when you have a slower morning.
It’s critical for your happiness and career success to make a conscious effort to take time for your personal life.
Yes, your boss wants you to be super productive and work your ass off, but she also doesn’t want you to be burnt out, upset with clients, or dread coming into the office — because let’s be honest that’s when the worst mistakes are made and contracts are lost.
If this is an ongoing issue, go to your boss and negotiate — for example, say you consistently have to work later hours due to a client time zone difference, you could ask about going to the gym during the workday so you’re able to keep a healthy routine even with late nights needed at the office.
Take a step back and truly examine the rules you’ve set for yourself and see who is really enforcing them… perhaps you are putting more pressure on yourself than anyone else.
Giving yourself breaks and prioritizing time to be happy does not make you a bad employee — know that those things can give you a tremendous advantage in becoming more successful in the long run.
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