Work sometimes means doing things you hate

My daughter works as an assistant manager at a shop that makes "authentic" sub sandwiches. Their food is great tasting and they use fresh cooked meat products. For most people, roasting and slicing beef would be a simple part of the job,which is of course based on perspective. For someone who is a vegetarian it is a little more difficult. However, if you go in and order a sandwich from her she'll assemble it with a loving smile and deliver it with a happy word; she loves her job.

Do you like everything you do at work?

I recently took a class (at work) for my career development, as a method for understanding where I am, and how to get where I want to be. The focus was on discovering the right balance between what my company and personal needs. When you identify the optimized intersect between business, skills and passion, you will find your Utopia at work.

Here are some things I would not put in the description of my ideal job.

• Tight release schedule
• Limited flexibility
• Documentation required
• Works well alone
• Using established standards with stable technologies
• Long release cycles
• Equal work-life balance
• Only internal products
• Repetitive tasks

We are the choices made during our lives. This includes everything from the music on our computers, the type of church you attend (or not) and whether to be happy or angry each day. When we choose to extend our learning in college or obtain practical experience, our path is set and we march down it. Happy or sad, technical or musical, bicycle or moped, complete the task or blow it off, we are shaped with each action.

Prior to being hired for my current job I attended a full day of behavioral-interviews. Coming from the Navy, I was unfamiliar with this style of discussion but did my best. The concept is pretty simple: you can tell how a person will act in the future based on how they responded in the past. Prior behavior (and choices) dictate who they are and how they will be as a worker.

As we all mature in our lives and get a real handle on those "things" that puts passion in our hearts it is natural for our job focus to change. Much like you may have wanted to be a dancer or a fireman when you were younger, that desire changes as your world expands. When I was younger I enjoyed the limited technology that we had in our world and wanted to be a part of it. The path I chose was through the nuclear power program (US Navy) and then into a technical company. As I look back 27 years and remember that I was writing software for an Apple IIe I'm very happy to see that I was able to uncover my passion so early.

Much like my daughter who chose to work at a company serving meat (against her personal choices), we all make decisions daily in order to get the job done. Almost a year ago I agreed to step back into my old role in order to serve the larger good of our company and it's been eating at me ever since. I basically chose to place my desires on hold for almost a year to benefit the organization and as such I have slipped out of my ideal job.

It's time for me to take back the reins and drive those horses in the direction I want to go.

  This article has been Digiproved © 2010