Tammy Erickson, a workplace expert and author of Plugged In:The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work, advises that if you’re unhappy, see if you can upgrade your contribution to the company, or find a way to be more creative about your job.

via How to Survive in an Unhappy Workplace – Management Essentials – HarvardBusiness.org.

Sometimes it’s not about how much you’re getting from your job, but how much of a difference you feel like you can make. If you don’t feel like your work has value, it’s hard to get excited about it. But you usually do have some control over that.

photo credit: Ange Soleil ( a.k.a Tweng )

Next time you’re feeling down about your job, peek at this list of Top 10 Ancient Jobs That Sucked Big Time and maybe you’ll look at your to-do list with renewed enthusiasm.

You don’t even have to go back to ancient times; there are plenty of jobs today that pretty much suck, and if you’re here reading this, they’re probably not yours.

Sometimes we all need a little perspective.

Happy Monday! Hope this turns out to be a great week for all of us.

photo credit: Betsssssy

What? Play at work?

It sometimes seems like only the humorless are promoted to positions of power and they expect everyone else to be just as humorless. But play is linked to creativity, and without creativity, we would all be humorless drones.

So tackle your next task with imagination and wonder, and see what fun you can have even with mundane routines.

You might find a new way of doing the same old thing that saves time, produces better results, or saves money. Or all of the above.

(And by the way, if you get those kinds of results and they aren’t appreciated, maybe it’s time to find another job. One where you can work hard and be playful at the same time, get good results, and be appreciated.)

Don’t ever lose your spirit. Happy Monday!

photo credit: Pylon757

Have you ever worked hard on a project only to find that parts of your work were thrown away, or the whole project was cut for lack of funding or any other reason? Of course you have – it’s an experience nearly as common as encountering an empty coffee pot in the break room.

I bet it’s tempting to feel irritated or even angry when your work is “wasted.”

But thinking about it further, when is our work ever really wasted? Don’t we become better at what we do with each effort we make, and more apt to do it better the next time? Doesn’t that knowledge make us better at estimating how much projects will cost, how long work will take, how well we can expect the results to come out, and so on? And isn’t there often a chance to reuse and recycle some of the core pieces of that work into something else down the road?

Keep striving for excellence, and keep seeking the good in every situation, and guess what? You will find both.

Happy Monday!

photo credit: optimal tweezers

It’s easy to get so caught up in the process of getting things done that we don’t stop to celebrate what we have gotten done.

This week, why not take a little time to review what you have accomplished in the past week, past month, and past year? Make a list if you like, or just browse through your calendar and remind yourself of all the little beginnings, or maybe even some big beginnings, your tasks have added up to.

When you see your work in context, it’s easy to feel motivated to get back to it and do the most important things: the things that will be worth reflecting on next week, or next month, or next year.

Happy reviewing, and happy Monday!

photo credit: tyger_lyllie

Most employee handbooks probably don’t forbid being too serious on the job… but maybe they should. Then again, they also probably don’t explicitly forbid humor, unless it’s of the “inappropriate” variety. But a laugh among colleagues can relieve tension, deepen relationships, and make dull days seem brighter.

In short, it can make the workplace fun. And what’s more motivating than a job you actually like doing?

There’s definitely a way of taking it too far. I’m not recommending anything that risks crossing the line into harassment, although I have worked in some environments where there was almost a sense that unless you were risking HR wrath, you weren’t pushing the envelope hard enough. But that isn’t most workplaces, and that isn’t necessary for a healthy release of tension.

And it needn’t be distracting. Spending 15 minutes of every 30 minute meeting cutting up is probably a bit excessive unless you write comedy for TV. But a light comment now and then, a shared laugh with colleagues, or a running gag the whole office is in on can be the kind of thing you wake up in the morning with a smile thinking about, eager to go to work.

Is there much humor in your office? Share a laugh in the comments.

photo credit: Jacob Bøtter

Recently I stumbled across an older article at HBR.org about cultural transformation within a company through fun and laughter:

We’re a company—maybe like yours—where having fun was long viewed with suspicion. Sure, a lot of start-ups and Silicon Valley companies have wild and crazy cultures, with pillow fights around the foosball table the order of the day. But ours is a traditional, Midwestern manufacturing company, one that didn’t even allow employees to have coffee at their desks until 1989. Although we pride ourselves on our technological innovation, we make industrial signs and other identification products, not PalmPilots or rainbow-colored iMacs. We are an old-line company that has always taken business very seriously—again, maybe like yours.

So perhaps it comes as a surprise that, for the past seven years, we’ve made fun an integral part of the culture at Brady Corporation—not simply as an end in itself but for serious business reasons. We’ve found that getting people to loosen up and enjoy themselves has numerous benefits. It can break down jealously guarded turf boundaries. It can foster an esprit de corps throughout the company and greater camaraderie on teams. It can start the conversations that spark innovation and increase the likelihood that unpleasant tasks will be accomplished. It can help convey important corporate messages to employees in memorable ways. It can relieve stress—and, heaven knows, we can all benefit from that.

And it made me want to ask you, our readers about your work environment: is your company environment fun? Do you laugh a lot at work? Is fun encouraged, or are you sneaking laughs with coworkers behind the bosses’ backs?

photo credit: TheeErin

Take a stroll through most corporate offices these days, and the attitudes you’ll often encounter are anxiety and skepticism, whether camouflaged or blatantly on display. With all the layoffs going on around us and friends and family out of work, it is difficult for many people to work up even a modest enthusiasm for their work, let alone passion.

Yet for businesses to succeed in a tight economy, they need dedicated, passionate people. How can a leader instill passion?

John Baldoni addressed this question in an article on HarvardBusiness.org the other day called How to Make People Passionate About Their Work. Some of the suggestions were:

Focus on the positive. Passion in leaders can be palpable; you know in an instant that the executive cares about the company. In my experience, those senior leaders who stroll through the halls with a nod or good word to say to all are those executives who get things done. And it is because they are out and about, not cloistered in their offices on mahogany row. Rather, they are meeting with employees and customers, vendors and investors, getting to know issues and concerns. They also use these times to talk up the good things.

Address the negatives. Passionate leaders are not Pollyannas; they know the score, precisely because they spend so much time out of their offices. They see firsthand what is working and what is not, and because they have a relationship with people in all levels of the company, they can more readily mobilize employees to solve problems.

At first blush these suggestions seem at odds. But it is vital to address both the reality of the situation and to foster hope for great outcomes. At the risk of sounding like a Jim Collins groupie, Good to Great addresses this as the “Stockdale Paradox,” citing it as one of the factors that allows great companies to survive difficult times and ultimately triumph.

(Moreover, in the book The Opposable Mind, Roger Martin relates management examples where leaders are able to “hold two conflicting ideas in constructive tension.” This is a skill we need as managers and executives.)

How are you rallying your teams to be passionate about their work? How are you, as an individual, cultivating your own passion? Tell us in the comments.

photo credit: alexik

Do you have friends at work? Studies show that people are generally much happier in their jobs when they have friends at their workplace.

This week, it might be worthwhile to try to strengthen your relationships at work: have a laugh with a friend at work, and plant the seeds of friendship with a casual coworker.

Penelope Trunk wrote an excellent blog post about having friends at work a few summers ago with a list of steps to go through to make it happen. One of my favorites in the list is this:

Find coworkers with shared vision and values.

This situation is probably most common at a nonprofit like Project: Think Different: “Everyone is linked together based on a passion for what we’re doing,” says, Raipal. “We all have a strong desire to change messages in pop culture.”

CareerBuilder on CNN.com has a great breakdown of “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of friendships at work, and it includes this should-be-obvious note:

Don’t, however mistake these initiatives as an open invitation to socialize all day. Keep your friendships in check and remember… you are at work to work!

(Socialize a bit, of course, but turning the average workday into an excuse for an office party is simply not sustainable — silly picture I chose for this post notwithstanding.)

Perhaps you’re even luckier than most, and you not only have a friend at work, you have a best friend at work. USAToday.com has an article on the advantages for business when coworkers are best friends.

Best friendships are good for business. Companies are coming to discover that, yet are at a loss at what to do about it. Group-hug Tuesdays? That idea sends chills down managers’ spines.

As well it should. No one wants to be required to befriend coworkers. Yet there certainly are management tactics that can promote the environment needed for coworkers to find like-minded peers and become friends. From the same article:

Brian Le Gette, CEO of Baltimore company 180s, is a believer in workplace friendships. The maker of sunglasses, ear warmers and gloves has a young, active workforce, and the company sponsors employees in Frisbee golf tournaments and a charitable rowing competition called dragon boat races that had 22 co-workers practicing for long hours after work.

Is all of this old hat for you? Are you a natural at making friends in the workplace? Leave us a note in the comments and let us know your tips for establishing workplace friendships.

photo credit: quinn.anya

As I mentioned on Mother’s Day, I grew up in a household where both parents were business people. (My mother, as I said in that post, spent years as a chamber of commerce executive and is now an elected official in my hometown.) My father spent 30-some years in industrial sales and sales management, and he worked out of our house when he wasn’t on the road, so I saw him in work mode a great deal of the time.

Both my parents were role models for me in many ways to become the Corporate Idealist I am today. Below are a few lessons I learned from my father, and which I hope are similar to lessons other people have learned from their own fathers about business.

Act sensibly, but be passionate about what you do.

My father was a likable, friendly guy but he had a short fuse and I sometimes heard him getting angry on the phone with suppliers, colleagues, and probably even customers. I know that what set him off the most was when people didn’t match his expectations of quality and service.

While I don’t think yelling at people on the phone is necessarily the best way to conduct ourselves in business, it shows passion. If you’re passionate about what you do, the challenge is to use your zeal to fuel others’ enthusiasm, and to spark your own creativity and innovation. Even slightly hot-headed dads would probably agree.

Don’t start fights, but stand up for yourself if you’re bullied.

This lesson comes not so much from the workplace as from the playground, but it applies everywhere. Unfortunately, even in the most mundane office environments, there are often still playground bullies. Sometimes they’re the CEO; sometimes they’re just at the next desk. Fortunately, Cy Wakeman recently posted an entry over at Fast Company about dealing with office bullies.

Invent and innovate.

My dad and I were on the front porch swing one time, and he started talking about inventions, and how much money there was in inventing something, and how I should try to think of something I could invent. I remember describing a concept I had for a typewriter that would type down onto paper underneath of it so it could work on odd size pages and bound paper. I don’t think he was very impressed, and I chuckle when I think of it.

Still, while I have not invented something in a classic sense, I have certainly tried to apply a philosophy of innovation to my work and other areas of my life.

In the end, your relationships matter.

When my dad was dying from cancer in 2005, he asked me to help him write some letters to some of his friends. He had a very difficult time finding a way to express what he wanted to say, so we came up with something that said “thank you for everything – your support, your kindness, your prayers, and most of all, your love.” Several of his friends approached me at his funeral to tell me how much they cherished that letter. Many of us may not suffer long enough to get the bittersweet chance to write those kinds of letters, so it’s important to express our love and gratitude to each other as often as we can.

The corollary to that lesson is that life is too short to spend your time with people you don’t care about, or who don’t share your values.

How about you? What did you learn from your father about business, or about life in general? Leave your lessons and stories in the comments.

And Happy Father’s Day to all fathers and children of fathers!