Thursday, January 10, 2008

Three Signs of a Miserable Job

Yahoo woos us with "Three Signs of a Miserable Job" on their home page today. Hell, in this economy, I know a lot of folks who would be thrilled to have ANY job, a miserable job, a lousy job, a disgusting job, you name it.

Here are some of the completely weird jobs I've had ... demonstrating how to smoke an opium pipe; replacement babysitter for a nanny who was having an affair with her boss (the two of them were going at it, way down at other end of the mansion all afternoon, while I babysat for the kid), secretary for the Hair Club For Men, I'm not kidding.

Now for the rest of you folks, here's the inside dope, according the Yahoo Hot Jobs and author Patrick Lencioni, on what might be making your job miserable:
Anonymity: Employees feel anonymous when their manager has little interest in them as people with unique lives, aspirations, and interests.

Irrelevance: This condition occurs when workers cannot see how their job makes a difference. "Every employee needs to know that the work they do impacts someone's life -- a customer, a coworker, even a supervisor -- in one way or another."

Immeasurement: This term describes the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contributions or success. As a result they often rely on the opinions of others -- usually the manager -- to measure their success.
Wow ... doesn't this make you want to go watch some episodes of The Office, which would make anyone feel happy to work whereever they work.