How or What matters most?
If the job is great and the culture is awful – can you keep on keeping on?
What about if the culture is great but the job is no good?
How about if the job and culture are great, would that be sustainable?
One thing missing in the above is how we work.
My first job had a culture of working 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday. When I was a Personal Trainer I worked 530am–10am and again from 4pm -9pm most week days. When I was at university and worked at a petrol station I worked weekends and even on Christmas day. My brother works in retail on night shift.
What about Financial Accountants who have monthly late nights around reporting deadlines? Emergency service providers who rotate through day and night shift? Seasonal businesses that can’t holiday over summer because that is when all the money is made. School teachers who can’t take leave except during school holidays. FIFO workers who’s work and home addresses are in different states or countries.
How we work has a profound impact on when and where we can be.
If these places are where important people in our lives are we can drive down the road and give that someone special a hug or share a meal. It might dictate a relationship facilitated by technology or our time in person might be saved for annual leave every other year.
At one point in my life I would tell anyone listening that family was important to me while I lived on the other side of the world from them. Even I started to question my integrity at that time.
Work travel can mean you are away from loved ones and unable to commit to regular activities like sport or hobbies for yourself or kids. It can also connect you to people and events if you choose companies with the aligned locations, partners and or customers.
No matter how close you live to the people and activities that are important in your life timing is the other significant factor. People who work shift work and or night work miss out on health benefits associate to human’s hardwired sleep cycles. In my first role when I finished work at 7pm I couldn’t participate in team training sessions, friends and family had already had dinner by the time I could meet them. When I was a personal trainer my spare time was in the middle of the day, it was awesome to have a cinema to myself but nigh on impossible to hang out with friends and family.
How we are remunerated also has an impact. If paid by the hour, more money usually means more time at work. If paid for results you might have more flexibility with your time. Smaller consistent fortnightly or monthly payments or sporadic larger payments can induce different feelings of financial security.
Being surrounded by concrete or trees, loud or quiet environments, fast paced or more relaxed deadlines all impact an individual’s sense of wellbeing.
Do we work with like hearted humans who share our values? We enjoy and find easy company with others who share our, or similar, values. We feel like we fit in and want to spend time with our colleagues and can be energized in their presence.
I often speak to having enough of what we love in our work and having an impact that is important to us through Work with Meaning. Another important ingredient is how we work.
Life Design can highlight the people and activities you want to be connected to which provides perspective on how you want to work. Understanding how you want to work can provide clarity in your ideal organisation’s industry, nationality, size, culture and role.
An added bonus for being intentional about how you work is that your job goes from being a blocker to the life you want to becoming the vehicle that connects you to the people and activities that matter most in your life.
