Find Joy in Any Job: Why Am I Unhappy at Work?

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There’s been much talk about the Great Resignation and what’s driving it. The pandemic has exacerbated a long-term problem: many of us struggle to find any pleasure in our work. But quitting isn’t the only the solution. Often, it’s not feasible. In this special series from HBR, we look at a different path: figuring out what you really love and crafting your current role around that. In this episode, we dig into the data showing why people feel so disengaged and what they feel is missing from their work. IdeaCast co-host Alison Beard speaks with Marcus Buckingham, head of research on people and performance at the ADP Research Institute and author of the new book Love + Work.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What I really dislike about my job is really things like paperwork, filling out insurance
0:07.5	forms, talking on the phone to schedule appointments, going to meetings.
0:13.7	Probably my biggest frustration is when the work that I do, which I'm so passionate
0:19.8	about, doesn't connect well to larger strategic initiatives or there is a gap in helping
0:27.3	the organizational leadership, see that, what I dislike or what I avoid is creating reports.
0:35.2	I think some of that is that I'm afraid the reports are going to reveal that I'm not doing my job well.
0:39.9	There are definitely parts that I dislike and kind of reserve for special days when I'm in a
0:45.4	particular mood. Those parts are really the challenges that come with developing marketing ecosystems
0:54.2	through different softwares that don't speak well together. Work activities that I dislike
1:01.2	typically things about dealing with hard conversations with some of our team. We are a growing team
1:07.3	and we are experiencing growing pains at times. I think a dislike that I don't have as many
1:13.8	opportunities to work with companies, organizations, where social impact is at the core of who they are.
1:29.8	I'm Allison Beard and this is fine joy in any job. A special series of the HBR IDICAS looking
1:35.9	at how to find more to love in your work and help other people do the same. Those were a few
1:40.5	HBR listeners sharing the frustrations they have with their jobs and I'm sure many of you have
1:44.8	similar issues. Office politics, unclear paths to advancement, boring assignments, stress, burnout.
1:50.8	When things like this build up it can make you want to quit but that's not the only way to solve the
1:55.2	problem. Often it's not the best way. In fact for a lot of people it's not even possible. So each
2:01.5	Thursday for the next four weeks we're going to take you in a different and we hope more viable
2:05.9	and positive direction. We'll help everyone figure out how to make their existing work situations
2:11.0	better for themselves and their teams. Our guide is Marcus Buckingham. He's a researcher, consultant,
2:17.4	and author and his latest book is called Love and Work. It's about digging down to an earth what
	...

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