A couple of years ago, a close friend of mine wanted to bring together the women that were important in her life. We had all heard so much about the others, but somehow not all of us had met. So there we were one evening, 8 or 9 women in their thirties, eating Spanish tapas in a cozy restaurant and talking about life, the universe and everything else.
Well, in reality the main topics were children (for those who had them) and work – or rather what was wrong with work. I remember being struck by that: listening to these lively, strong, independent, intelligent and creative women – and not one of them was feeling fulfilled in their work. Whether it was the job being too small, the boss being unprofessional, or the pay being too low – or a combination of all that. But all of us felt we invested much more in work, than we got out of it – and we all felt that we had so much more to offer. And yet we were all stuck in jobs that didn’t make us happy, and regardless of what we do have to offer in the world, it was also clear that our bosses were not really getting what they wanted either.
So where do we go wrong, in the jungle that the career market is? I think we have simply forgotten how wonderfully complex human beings are. When I’m talking to employees, managers, HR colleagues, or just reading articles about anything from recruitment to employee engagement, it is clear that we are all looking for the simple answers and the quick fixes: a small pill that makes everything right in the world again. But nothing is ever that simple when it comes to people.
I think that we need to rediscover our own wondrous complexity, discover all that we are and all that we have to offer. So that each and every one of us can start contributing from their own unique strengths, rather than being put into a box (a job) that was created to fix problems that were created because other people have been squeezed in equally restrictive roles. If we all, both employees and employers would just become genuinely curious again about people, we all would be a step closer to being happy @ work.
How do we do that? That might just be one of the topics I’d like to take a closer look at as part of my new project.
Nilah Nilah 