Getting Over Yourself and Loving Your Current Job
MEMO: For the leaders of the organization
Not only do I vehemently disagree with you immediately quitting your day job, I aim to prepare you for your next career step by helping you to appreciate, if not love, your current one.
In my 20s, quitting to find your bliss seemed like the right thing to do. I never quit a job. In fact, I was laid off in 2008 and sat in that Starbucks off Wall Street and cried into my flip phone. Going home to my parents wasn’t an option, but I had to eat. I realized that so much of my agony when I had this job I hated, was hating it.
I am not referring to workplace abuse of any kind. I’ll let you and EEOC define what that is for you, but there is a difference between digging a pitty ditch you can’t get out of and bringing your friends, family, colleagues and team with you, and getting out because no job should include abuse.
I’m talking about recognizing some of the best advice I’ve ever been given.
“Tough shit, kid. This is the job. Do it. Do it well and go home.” -my mom
Shocked face when a loved one lovingly sets us straight.
She’s a tough lady. Always has been. She’s the best, most loving lady I’ve ever known, but she’s not from the gentle parenting era (like I am), let me tell you.
I’d like to upgrade my mom’s advice to what we will call, “Do it well, and go home.”
You and I do this work because we were meant to. A lot of people don’t buy into the woo woo stuff, but according to an article written in the Washington Post in 2023, the nonprofit sector saw a 33% growth over 15 years because feeling deeply connected to a thing means something, and it means more than a paycheck.* A Harvard report states 92% of employees who work at a company with a deep purpose would recommend working at said company to others.**
But also, there’s bad news. We (do gooders that work for and/or run nonprofits and social impact enterprises) are more likely to burnout and crash than your brother that works as a financial analyst for a supply chain company. 20.6% of nonprofit Executive Directors (polled at the National Council of Nonprofits) said government grants and contracts lead to workforce shortages, and contribute to the head banging on wall effect. I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist.
And I’m still not suggesting you sell your house, take what’s in the 401k and flee to Mexico City. They don’t want us anyway. #iykyk
The “Do it well, and go home” effect is this, and it is not simple, but it will meaningfully deepen your reason for being, put money in the pockets of you, your staff, and stakeholders and help you to reach your mission. While you are moving towards a more satisfying day job experience, I suggest recognizing the gifts. The gift can come in the form of the things you complain about actually. What have you learned from the boss you do not get along with? What are you doing creatively that you could not do were it not for this job? How are you impacting the community around you either because of the flexibility or the people you inevitably meet? I am not suggesting your day job is a bed of roses, or maybe it is just with thorns. The point is to identify what is innately good about you within the job you have and let that reality guide your thinking. It’s a little “woo”, but I’m “woo” so there’s that.
Below are some tips I use when I begin working with leaders of organizations to help them rethink adding on more programs and events.
You’re an Overreacher or Total Hands Off’er - Where do you overreach? Where do you either have your hands in everything, or have mentally checked out and “hope” it works out the way it should? Usually, having your hands in everything leads to mentally checking out. It usually means you know there is an infinite amount of time, learned to do it all so believe you should run yourself until there is nothing left to give.
Is your social impact company or nonprofit carrying a mission or a reason? We define “reason” as the internal force that moves you to do the work you do. That force is usually a trauma response you don’t always notice creep up and dictate your decision making at work. It is also a beautiful tool that helps you to be the impactful leader you have become, even if you don’t always admit. The parts of ourselves that we aren’t always aware of are often running our life. The mission of your organization is the big, sometimes scary, transformational task the organization was meant to do in the world. It has a beginning, middle and end. When a leader lets their reason dictate the type of events to do, partners to connect with and strategies to carry out, it usually ends up in mission creep, burn out and a sense of wandering that isn’t meaningful. Some wandering is great. I’d dare say most, but how long you do it and why you do it can help or hurt your organization and/or team.
What do you do because it’s always been done? Adding more programs to your roster of programs may get you a grant, but to what end? Planning another event is our wheelhouse. We also like to write ourselves out of a job by suggesting a lot of events could either be an email or will need more meat on the bones to be beneficial to the community you serve.
Why haven’t you given yourself or your staff room to, not just take 2 weeks off in August and a month or more in December, but put your ego aside long enough to know what your role in community is and what it is not? You’re short changing yourself and your people, but by not defining your niche and the sweet spot your organization provides that have actually changed your community for the better.
Capitalism is a monster some of us avoid like the plague or take on every day. Why? Capitalism is a bitch. No doubt. Making money (and not just ends meet) is not. Stop leaving money on the table by having events and ongoing programs that will not inch you towards the mission because you feel guilty about having a successful social impact business or nonprofit. We were all meant to live well. Why do you think we are doing this? Well may not mean money for some, but it is for others.
**https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/corporate-social-responsibility-statistics