By Tom McNichol
Greg ball has always
loved the outdoors, but his career left him little time to enjoy
it. That changed five years ago, when he quit his banking job
to become executive director of the Washington Trails Association,
a hiking advocacy group. Ball's $24,000 annual salary is considerably
less than he used to make, but his wife also works and they have
no kids to support.
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Finding meaning in your current
job
Not everyone needs to quit to find more meaningful work. "About
half the people I see end up doing some fine-tuning with their
present job," says career consultant Anthony Spadafore. Ideas:
Before you make changes, pinpoint what really bothers you.
Is it your boss? Your co-workers? The environment? The work itself?
Seek alternative work schedules. Job sharing, working flexible
hours or working at home can change your entire outlook.
Find out if you can change your job or move within the company.
Can you take on other, more meaningful duties? Can you move to
a position more in line with your values?
Question what it means to be "successful." Many
people are unfulfilled at work because they feel trapped by conventional
notions of success. Is your idea of success making you miserable?
"You can transform a job just by your attitude,"
says Richard Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute?
"Sit down and ask yourself, 'What is my vision of life,
and how can I make this job more in keeping with that vision?'
"
--T.M. |
"I make about one-third the money I used to, but
the work is three times more fun," Ball says. "I see
people from the bank and they're envious."
Ball is part of a growing trend in which workers are switching
jobs not for money, but for meaning. Where once career counselors
and job-hunting books focused on "building a better résumé"
and "tapping the hidden job market," now the talk is
more often about finding a job in line with one's values.
"The goal of most people 10 years ago was to get the good
career that paid well," says Anthony Spadafore, director
of Pathfinders
in Alexandria, VA. "The trend today is people asking,
'How can I use my natural abilities and find meaning in what I do?' "
"The No. 1 issue of people we see centers around values,"
says Betsy Collard, strategic development coordinator for Career
Action Center in Cupertino, Calif., a counseling service. "People
will say, 'I'm successful in the job I have now, but something's
missing.' "
Job experts point to a variety of factors:
Baby boomers, the largest segment of the work force, have
hit middle age, traditionally a time to re-evaluate lives and
work. And Generation X is just entering the job market, searching
for more meaningful alternatives to career paths carved out by
their boomer predecessors.
The traditional work compact, in which employees traded hard
work and loyalty in exchange for job security, has been shattered.
On average, American workers hunt for a new job eight times in
their lives. In the absence of work they can rely on, more employees
want work they can believe in.
A booming economy affords workers the luxury of searching
for fulfilling work. During a recession, people are happy just
to have a job.
Some career experts have been talking for decades about the importance
of finding spiritual fulfillment in work but are only now being
heard. "I try to tell people there isn't a ghetto between
spirituality and their job -- there's an essential relationship
between the two," says Richard Bolles, author of What
Color Is Your Parachute?, the world's best-selling job-hunting
guide. The chapter that generates the most mail, he says, is
"How to Find Your Mission in Life," which offers suggestions
on how to marry one's beliefs and work.
Helen Taft, 57, plans to leave her job at a direct marketing
firm in Denver to launch Credentials Career Center, a resource
for working women that will focus on values in the workplace.
"I believe in this so passionately I'm willing to take the
risk," Taft says. "At the end of the day, I want to
take home something more than a paycheck."
Many career counselors now spend as much time probing clients'
beliefs as poring over their work histories. They conduct open-ended
interviews to uncover what clients value most. Some ask job-seekers
to rank a set of values in order of importance. Still, finding
a career you value is one thing; getting paid well for it is
another.
"Baby boomers don't like to hear me say, 'You can't have
everything,' " says Larry Gaffin, director of the Center
for Life Decisions in Seattle. "But some are starting to
understand having enough is more important than having it all."
That's true for Tim
Lantz (one of Spadafore's delighted clients). When Lantz, of Atlanta,
landed an engineering job out of college, he had a rude awakening:
"I found out I hated engineering."
Now Lantz, 34, plans to start his own company, one that will
produce decorative garden items. The new job will fulfill his
goals: being his own boss, staying at home with his two kids,
and tapping his artistic abilities. Says Lantz: "I'm making
less money than I would as an engineer, but I really want a career
that fulfills all my talents."
Contributing Editor Tom McNichol
last profiled Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
Copyright 1997 USA WEEKEND. All rights reserved and used with permission by Tom McNichol
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