This is a quick follow-up to my Be the Solution post.
It occurred to me that the opposite of BEING the solution is BEING the squeaky wheel. (I know, I’m Captain Obvious.)
The sour grapes of the office. The chronic complainers. The permanently unhappy, miserable.
I’ve worked with a few of those type in my life.
They make life for everyone miserable. They are a drain on energy and joy.
You can even feel your mood shrink in their presence sometimes.
You’re probably thinking of someone like that right now.
When I’ve encountered these types of people, I always wonder how they got to be so miserable.
I’m shocked that there are people that miserable at work because here’s some facts …
We live in America (or at least I do).
With the proper initiative (a resounding theme in my life currently), and some basic job skills, we can choose what type of work we do. No one can force us to do work we don’t want to.
My point is … we have choices. Lots of choices in this life.
More choices afforded to us then previous generations before us. Some of our ancestors even died for the freedom of having those choices.
And I’ve always thought that if someone, living in the U.S. at least, is so miserable by the work they do, then they can change that.
I’ve done that numerous times myself. When I hit some ceiling in my work, or squeezed out the challenge, excitement and potential of a position, I made a conscious decision to find different work.
Most people might think I was a job hopper. On paper, yeah, you could assume that.
But when I went to a job interview for a new position, I could always tell the person who interviewed me: “I’m confident that if those former bosses had a position open for me, they’d hire me again.”
… because I tried to be the solution, to provide value to those organizations and bosses, to enjoy my coworkers, be authentically interested in their lives, to be someone they looked forward to working with, talking to, and going to lunch with … which is the opposite of squeaky wheels.
