Let’s be realistic here - hands up all of you who bounce out of bed every single morning, raring to get to work and enjoying yourself every minute of
day? If you didn’t put your hand up (even metaphorically), you’re not alone. There have been so many articles published recently about working statistics in UK - that Brits work longest hours in EU, that we have higher risks of heart disease than our continental friends due to stress and poor diet, there has been a rise in people "downshifting" and moving to country to raise chickens and weave baskets. But many people who dream of doing just that don’t, especially when there are so many television programs on, which show all grisly details about how people who do downshift simply exchange one set of problems for another. While there are many people who make a real success of changing their careers in such a dramatic fashion, it might be worthwhile sorting out what problems you do have with your current career before making that radical decision to downshift.
First Things First
The first place to start is to think about why you chose to do what you do - what was it about Law that attracted you originally? Was it logic that attracted you? Or feeling of winning? Or love of solving problems? Or was it ‘safe’ thing to do? Were your parents lawyers and pushed you in that direction? Was it for money? Even if last few questions ring true for you, you can still enjoy your work.
What do you actually do?
Think about all aspects of your job: what do you actually do during day? Speak to people on phone? Do research? Prepare reports? Present at meetings? If you do more than two of above on a daily basis, you’re not so different to many office workers.
So think about what part of day you look forward to - apart from going-home time. Do you enjoy challenge of presenting, or love learning new facts, or talking and interacting with other people? Try thinking about your day in terms of actual things you do and what you can get out of each different task. Could you delegate or reassign tasks you don’t like doing and shift majority of your workload towards things you prefer? Or can you think about it all in a different way? How much of your day is spent doing things you actually like? If it is less that 50%, will you settle for that? Try doing a rated pro/con list of everything you do, with each item being scored on a 1-5 scale, where 1 means you love it and 5 means you can’t stand it. If you have lots of 1s on your pro list and lots of 3s on your con list, that’s good, but if it is other way around, and your pro items are all scored at 3 and your con list is all at 5, you may want to think about re-evaluating your career.
People Problems
Treat people are THEY wish to be treated
What if people that surround you are what makes you dread walking through door in morning? Do you have an annoying boss, colleague or client? If you heart sinks when a certain person opens their mouth - for whatever reason (condescension, cattiness or plain stupidity), try thinking about what exactly it is that is rubbing you wrong way. You’re you - deserving of respect and care. But doesn’t that go other way too? There’s that old saying "treat others as you wish to be treated", but surely everyone is different? Shouldn’t that really be altered to say "treat everyone as THEY wish to be treated"? This requires you to actually attempt to understand other people - and while it takes that bit more effort, it can help you reduce unnecessary friction and make people who surround you daily into more than just people who work in same location.
Change Yourself, not Others
No doubt you’ve heard it before - you can’t change someone else. What you can do is change your attitude and behaviour towards them. If you’re being defensive around one person always, try thinking about why that is - is there some niggle in your mind saying that this person is not on same level as you. Are you jealous of way they are and way they live? If they are junior to you in experience and position, but are ‘darling’ of boss, is their progress something that you wish had happened to you? What would happen if you started treating them as an equal?
Respond with Care
What about if you are being treated unfairly? If you are reacting to this with a very hostile manner, you are really tying yourself into a viscious circle where it will be impossible to escape with your self-esteem, dignity and reputation intact. I don’t mean to say ‘take it on chin’, but you can do a lot about situations like these without actually bringing yourself down to a level where relations are irreparably damaged. For instance, you don’t need to show your boss that your colleague is being badly behaved by using style of a schoolgirl tattling to her teacher. Try speaking to person who is upsetting you and explaining why their behaviour is so hurtful, and suggesting an alternate way of interacting. Often, people really just don’t realise that what they are doing is offensive or mean, and may actually think that it is a lighthearted joke. And if you are able to present this to them in a way that does not resemble a personal attack, you may be able to rescue situation without any problems at all. Obviously there are times where this won’t work, and this may require you to evaluate values of those around you - and if they don’t match yours, you will need to think your options through in rather more detail.
