When we talk about our jobs, there are usually two factions: those who love their job? Or at least they are so motivated - for whatever reason - that their motivation shoots from their ears, mouth and nose. And the faction, which does not have to puke on Mondays, but which nevertheless accompanies a certain blues feeling through the working day.

Author Anja Niekerken

© Business Village Publishing / PR

But why is it like that? Why can some people barely keep up with work happiness, and in others the enthusiasm tends to be in the negative? One thing in advance: There is no one reason. We are not simple black and white beings from old celluloid stripes, but rather we are onion personalities. We are multi-layered. And just as complex and different are the reasons for the Monday blues.

I once picked out a few examples as representatives.

If you think for a moment, why did you choose your job? How did you come to become a tax consultant, physician or mechanic? And I immediately enclose the second question: Did you imagine that in your decision?

I'm honest: not me! I started my career in advertising. Cool thing, I thought. Creative and great people. There you are right. Okay, it was not like that after all. No wonder: I had no idea of ​​the world of work at all. So I started my studies without really knowing what the job would actually look like and thus my career ladder was simply put on the wrong wall.

And so are many who suffer from Monday sickness!

It starts with the choice of the job

Let's take a look at how we usually choose our job: it often starts with the spiral of unfavorable decisions. And please, we are not talking about the edge of the subsistence level, where you have to accept every job. We're talking about "what should I study?" or "I'm well educated, I'm off to work" or "I find my job to spit, maybe I could try something new" What are we thinking about? What are selection criteria? What would the job have to offer us?

Sure: a good salary - to get to that, nobody needs me and this article.

And then we think about the location! We Germans are not really as mobile as we would like to be. In fact, the average travel time that we just tolerate is 20-30 minutes per tour. Then it gets critical and is one of the factors that causes us more nausea? For a study place, many people are ready to change the location completely, this is an exception, then we are again inflexible.

What decides about our working happiness

What else? Holidays, canteen, sports subsidies or public transport? And of course our ideas about how the job should be done? at least, when we come fresh from school, college or education.

But even with a job change, we read through the job descriptions exactly and think, "That sounds good, I'll get it." If all these points are answered satisfactorily, then we believe we would be happy in our job and decide to do so. Obviously, but completely wrong, because these are not the parameters that make us satisfied according to scientific studies.

If we believe science - and I usually tend to do so - then the answer to the question "What makes us happy and happy in the job?" even more banal: nice colleagues, a good leader and a relationship with what you do. All this can not be found in any job description!

And hardly anyone comes up with the idea to choose his job for colleagues or for the boss, although boss and colleagues among the top 3 reasons for dismissal! In other words, we choose our job after the task, but then cancel because of very different factors! A good boss and nice colleagues often make you happier than anything else? The sense comes downstream and sometimes all by itself. The most meaningful job is not fun when the boss is stupid and the colleagues are stupid?

© Business Village Publishing / PR

So that we understand each other correctly: meaning is not necessarily something meaningful in the sense of the social understanding? Doctors and nursing professions certainly have the highest meaningfulness in doing according to social understanding? But a lot of people in these occupational categories do not see it that way or not. One of the reasons why this profession has one of the highest burnout rates. Of course, pressure plays a role, but it's just a factor! Sense is another. And who does not find the meaning in his actions, who has a much higher risk of burnout under pressure than someone to whom his actions seems useful?

From a fucking job that makes you happy

It has been quite a while since there was still the discotheque "Madhouse" in Hamburg. At that time Hamburg's oldest disco and for a while my second home. The Madhouse had been open every night and was almost always jam-packed. The shop was quite small and probably always overcrowded. As well as the four toilets. Two for boys and two for the girls. Between the two sections there was a small cubbyhole for the toilet woman. Halina worked there. Now, cleaning a bathroom in a disco is not a dream job. Apart from the workplace, the working hours are not the hit? But Halina was the good soul in the shop. All regulars always turned upstairs to the toilets to greet them and of course they said goodbye to her. She not only knew the names of the guests, she also knew her stories and always had time for a bite. In addition, there was just everything: from hair spray to deodorant to mouth spray. Anyone who tipped her got a cola lollipop with a decal. And whoever had all five motives got a bottle of Krimmsekt?

Halina was loved and liked by all. She has earned little. Her job was in the truest sense of the word "shit," but Halina liked people. She liked talking to people and she liked to do good to people. And she understood how to find that meaning in her job?

Happiness at work is certainly also a coincidence. But luck loves stubborn people.

The fairy tale of constant happiness

And one thing we should always keep in mind: We are not made forever happiness! Our biological shell does not do that! Nevertheless, our work should do this. An expectation, which we also like to address to our partnership, our children, our hobby and so on. Unrealistic is hardly possible!

At this point in my lectures I often look at compressed lower jaw, and at colleagues in horrified faces or at the people who really love their job? Always with Tranquillity! I love my job, too, but it's not that easy?

The competitive sport comes because much more realistic therefore! I'll take the extreme sports as an example: for example, extreme climbing.

If you read books about this sport, these are not books from which the joy starts on every page. On the contrary: from side to side the agony becomes unbearable, the misery greater. Toes freeze. The author could hardly breathe his nose and even 20 pages before, and then maybe water is accumulating in his lungs? Very nasty authors then also describe that they have not found happiness at the summit? Great ? And yet, they go back to the next summit. No one climbs mountains to be happy at the summit. It's about climbing!

It's not about the goal

I'm a passionate rider, but I'm definitely not riding out to get back to the stable: it's about the experience! Nobody skis to get back on the lift.

It's about the challenges and the joy of doing in itself. Challenging goals arouse our ambition. And with every challenge we learn, we grow beyond ourselves. Goals define our path. Goals define our challenges. Nevertheless the way is the goal.

Five tips to take with you from this article:

First: Do I feel comfortable in my work environment? Do I have nice colleagues and a good boss? If you answer these questions with? Yes? that's half the battle! Because you have already eradicated two of the main reasons for the Monday blues.

Secondly: What am I really good at? What is easy for me? What is my talent? You may have chosen the most amazing and sensible activity under the sun; if it does not suit your talents, it will make you rather unhappy. Because we usually love what we are good at. If you're not sure what I'm trying to do with it, just imagine a thing that you're really not good at. And by that I mean a thing in which you are really bad. Do you like that? Not really, right? Even if you have chosen a job in which you may not be really bad, but your talents are somewhere else, then you will probably find more frustration than enjoyment at work. Clearly, that is a merry work in the way.

thirdly: What is the purpose of your job? What do you return to society with your actions? Anyone working as an interpreter at Deutsche Bahn or as an accountant in a semiconductor company may not be able to answer this question directly. This is because we often can not directly see the effects of our actions. At that moment, I have to ask at a higher level: what does my company do for society and what part do I have in it? Or maybe it's because your work enables other people to do their job at all. Granted, the answer to this question is not easy to find, but it's worth looking for.

Fourth: Do not let yourself be persuaded that your job is bound to fulfill you completely. Many of these statements are advertising slogans of the coaching industry. Of course, you should do something useful and on the whole like to do it. But only on the whole. Not constantly every minute and every second. A relaxed time with friends and a decent paycheck at the end of the month are also worth a lot. But let's forget about it all happiness search again and again. Happiness arises in the small. Do not miss it!

Fifth: Happiness is something temporary. We are not made for good fortune forever. How does Dr. Eckerhart von Hirschhausen so beautiful: "Happiness comes and happiness goes. Luckily!? And he is right. Whoever is happy, gets used to it and does not realize his happiness any more. Therefore, it is not wrong, even times not so great times in the job, because then we can appreciate the good again. It is much smarter to strive for serenity. A cheerful serenity that makes us forget the Monday blues.

In this sense: Stay relaxed and cheerful on Monday!

Ways to beat Monday blues - Dr. Sulata Shenoy (July 2024).