3 Things You Need To Know When You Start Working
I switched my career 8 times for 5 years and kept encountering these problems.
When I started working at the age of 19, I didn’t know what I was getting into and I wish someone could’ve told me this.
That work isn't going to be easy wherever you go.
If you see my LinkedIn, I have quite a messed up career, switching to many different companies: From a school center to IT, Fashion and Luxury, Startups, Cinemas, and now writing freelance.
As you can see here, I moved to so many different industries and wasn’t able to settle, even now. I kept switching jobs for the past 5 years because I wasn’t strong enough to deal with the problems each had to face.
Recently, I managed to settle into one industry that I love, but despite my huge interest I that company and I got the job, there were times I felt like I want to quit.
When I had that in mind, I spoke to many people after that about their jobs and found three things about working. In the end, I chose not to resign first.
Here is why:
Every Company Always Problems That Employees Hate To Face
When I thought of quitting, I asked my friends who are working in other companies if they have any job openings. However, they too also said that they also plan to quit because of the work hectics and whatever problems they had to face that drains their energy. Then they told me that they don’t recommend me to work in their place.
After hearing what they said, I stopped to reflect back on whether I want to quit or not. I work in the cinema industry, a place close to the industry I love, and I also have side gigs and hustles to develop. Do I really want to quit in an industry that I love?
Everything has its ups and downs, and usually, the down parts are the ones we hate to face the most. The problems can be so complex and that it seems that the only way is to dump everything out.
Companies, and even startups, deal with so many frustrating problems: miscommunication, change of systems, work overload, rude colleagues, bosses, and customers, or even toxic culture.
I’ve spoken with so many people about how are their works, and many (perhaps all) would tell me that it’s ups and downs. However, most would tell me a huge long story on why they didn’t like their jobs and it turned into a therapy session where they spill everything out. They even told me that they want to quit because the problems were all too overwhelming.
I can’t really call them whiners as well because I am in a position where I’m questioning my own company. Perhaps it’s also because of the pandemic that works becomes so hectic and frustrating, it’s like there are so many problems to face.
In the end, I decided not to quit. I had to choose which stress am I willing to go with, the stress from the industry I love or from the one I hate. I chose the stress from the one I love.
Because no matter where we go, every business have their own problems that employees working there must face.
There Will Always Be People We Hate To Work With
One thing I love about work from home is that I don’t have to face people I don’t like working with.
Before the pandemic, when everyone was able to come to the office, there were certain people I didn’t like to work with because they were so rude and proud. They’d say one thing, then they changed the rule without telling us and that made all processes much harder and they didn’t even want to acknowledge that they were wrong.
In my former workplaces, back when I was working part-time while attending college, I also had this issue to the point I was afraid to come to work because I was being ostracised. I used to be the worst in public speaking and I felt my colleagues would leave me alone because I wasn’t as good as them. Plus, most came from rich families so it was hard for me to connect with them.
That made me anxious and uncomfortable every time I work, so when my contract ended, I left the company. The anxiety of being ostracized was getting on me too much that I felt like crying every time I come to work.
From then on, after transferring and started a new career path, I applied to different jobs and still found people I didn’t like working with. Not that I’m complaining, but this was what I learned after switching career paths and jumping to different industries.
But from the experience where I was ostracized, I learned to ignore these people and just do my work. I had to pretend all the problems before never exist so that I can seize my day.
And no matter which companies or careers we go to, there will always be people we don’t like to work with.
Complaining Isn’t Going To Solve Anything
If you think of quitting because you complain that the job is overwhelming, you won’t like what I am going to tell you.
I had an administration problem that had been going on for a long time and finally resolved after four months. The people responsible for certain tasks were not solving anything, rather complaining about why certain things in the administrations were wrong. In addition, these are the types of people I hate to work with and I had to deal with them.
The worst part is that because they are not problem solvers, they would actually blame people. All they do is run their mouth, point their fingers to someone, and get mad all the time. And whenever they ask to get to the point, they give an unnecessary long speech about why this problem happened and not how to solve it.
In the end, my managers had to step in to solve the problems together in a civil manner. The complainers shut their mouths and followed the path the leaders helped paved. Thank goodness these managers know what to do.
But from the meeting alone, there were people actually resigning because of the complexity without solutions. Some told me how messy the company was and that they were running away from the problem, only to find another job with a similar issue.
Learning from this, I realized that wherever we go, there will always be similar problems. That’s why we must be problem solvers instead of complaining.
Conclusion
There will be work stress everywhere, we just have to know which one we are willing to be frustrated about. Because every company has these in them:
- Problems that we employees hate to face but must
- People we don’t like to work with
- Complaining is not a solution.
If you are a fresh graduate reading this, I hope you pick which companies you are willing to want to work with instead of blindingly send your resumes. Know what you are getting yourself into so that you won’t be shocked at what you are getting yourself into.
