Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone with an estimated 18.9 billion dollars spent on flowers, cards, candy, and other gifts. Many people find that Valentine’s Day encourages them to reflect on whether or not their relationships are working; although known as the lover’s holiday, “reality is that the month following Valentine’s Day is the most common time of the year for relationships to end.”
Whether planning the perfect date, or reflecting on “what’s next,” many will have invested countless hours contemplating their partners and other relationships. Yet how many invest the same money, time, and energy in considering their relationship with their jobs, or their employer?
Tomlinson (2010) noted that individuals spend 90,000 to 100,000 hours, or approximately 25% of their lives, at work. Employee engagement studies show that 20% of the global workforce is actively disengaged. Being unhappy in a relationship or marriage takes away from quality of life and can cause all sorts of personal challenges . . . being unhappy at work can have similar ramifications.
Just like when considering whether to end a relationship, or take it to the next level, deciding whether to dump your job, or employer, will take some investment in time and energy. To begin, reflect on what’s working and what isn’t across a wide range of factors including your skills and education, wages and benefits, and supervisors and co-workers.
For additional thoughts, consider the following tip sheets: