The Dark Side of Job Fulfillment

It is time to pick yours…

For this story, I want to reflect on something that I feel has become an obsession for many of us. (By us, I mean lost millennials. Those who grew up being told that they could be anything that they wanted to be, and had to learn the art of compromise when reality hit).

If you can recognize yourself in the profile described above (God knows I do), then you might want to keep on reading…

What is that you want to do?

I chose job fulfillment as my first post because I believe it is one of the things that many people are looking for, whether they are millennials or not.
Ok, maybe fulfillment in general does not have to derive from a job, but since most of us need to work in order to make a living, we might as well try to make this necessity as fulfilling as possible, right?

Well, maybe. I don’t know. I guess that this is what we will try to figure out over the course of this post.

Question/s of the day.

• Is job fulfillment something that everyone can have?
• Is it something that everyone should strive for?
• Does the real issue lay in our expectations?

I wonder to which extent it is realistic to expect career fulfillment without recalibrating our “expectational compass”. Of course, anybody who has ever had a job knows that it cannot all be sunshine and rainbows. Even more certainly, ups and downs are part of any career as much as they are part of life, but how many times have we seen people persist in jobs that were evidently causing more suffering than joy?

The “In between trap”.

Obviously, I don’t know how this happens, but I am sure we all have our theories as to how this phenomenon can take place (feel free to share ;-) ). What I believe that happens in these (unfortunately not so rare) cases, is that people may accidentally fall victim to the “in-between trap”.

No worries, I’ll explain. When you find yourself being consistently unhappy at work, it is quite easy to understand you are in need of change and you will be more motivated than ever to abandon the sinking ship and raw into a new, more promising, direction.

Unfortunately, some other times, even though you are not happy, there are some things that prevent you from feeling completely miserable. For example, all the nice things you can buy with your more than decent salary, the opportunity to grow and earn some fancier title, that social status conferred to you by your well-known company, or whatever made your mouth water a little when you first looked at the job description.

In short, when you fall victim to the “in-between trap”, you are not very satisfied with your current job, but you don’t hate it enough to find in your heart the courage to look for something new. Something that maybe, you would actually care about.

Freedom(less).

Unfortunately, I believe that is a tricky situation many of us find ourselves in, making the ultimate bargain with our lives for the comfort and the “freedom” to do the things we actually want outside of work.
I know, when I put it like that, it does not really sound like freedom, does it?

But then again, sometimes I wonder if actually liking the job is just a luxury that not all of us can afford and if maybe, we should just “suck it up” and accept that even if reality is less than ideal, it should not be that big of a deal. (Did you see what I did there? ;-) )

Time to pick a side.

What do you think? Is it imperative that we find a meaningful and fulfilling job?
I mean, we do spend a good chunk of our life at work, but what about our parents and grandparents? They did not seem to have these issues and for them, work was simply work. A means to an end. You did not have to love it as long as it put bread on the table.
Of course, I believe that finding a motivating job is important, but maybe we should also be careful not to let our life purpose depend on a “millennial fantasy”. Food for thought.

(If you managed to read up to this point and have an opinion about it, I encourage you to share it. It will only help me make the next posts more interesting).

Regardless of what “side you picked”, since the post is about job fulfillment, I will continue to explore the topic and try to reflect on it to the best of my abilities.

Instant lack of purpose & delayed happiness.

There are plenty of studies that suggest that we, as a generation, are more anxious and depressed than those who came before us. If it is so difficult to find happiness and serenity in general, it makes sense that many of us struggle to find meaning at the workplace.

There is a very popular speech made by Simon Sinek where he explores the causes behind this generic sense of frustration and unhappiness among millennials.
In this speech, Mr. Sinek blames part of our frustration and inability to find job satisfaction on the need for instant gratification.
Apparently, millennials like to get what they want as fast as possible, preferably immediately. Well, I guess nobody else likes things fast and easy then.
How dare we take the path of least resistance when given the opportunity to do so?
Of course, he could be right, (the aim of the story is not to discredit him, but simply to reflect, remember?) but could it also be that the world has changed so much (so fast) that we are experiencing a massive clash of values?

Andrea, what the f*ck are you talking about?

Clash of values.

I will explain what I mean, but first, let me ask you another question.

How many of you studied something just because you had to? Maybe you were thinking about doing something else, but you decided to go for that major that would “open more doors”. Also, when discussing it with your parents, it was a super-rational decision, almost impossible to question, right?

Not my picture.

So, back to the clash of values.
Could it be that, instead of being a generation of lazy b*stards, we just do not share the same values of previous generations just as we do not share their image of success?
Too bad that maybe, ever since we were little boys and girls, every brush stroke was made to paint a picture where, as grownups, we could not see ourselves fit into.

Live the LIE you love.

To paint these beautiful pictures we make the most rational choices that dictate the next most rational steps and all of sudden we are living somebody else’s life, we are living a lie. Guess what, to survive the lie, we have to start believing it ourselves… a self-defense mechanism that paradoxically, does more harm than good.
In the moment we might suffer less, but in the long-run, it might prevent us from breaking free.

I wonder if this is what alienates many of us, making us feel purposeless and confused. (Sure, I am probably being over dramatic…we’ ll be fine…)
In any case, enough reflection for one day. Time to conclude the post and I cannot think of a better way to end than a philosophical question.

Is a life spent doing something you do not love, a life worth living?