Never Give Up on the Quality of the Work, Even if You Hate Your Job
What is my work ethic?
We have all been there, where we hate our jobs, feel overworked, intensely dislike our managers, and sometimes even our coworkers, where our stomach is in knots every Sunday night and where we dread Monday mornings.
There might be many reasons for you to dislike your job. Some of them can be a bad environment, not enough growth, dislike of the career path ahead of you, or not being utilized enough. Or you are not feeling “passionate” enough, as many millennials say.
Now more than ever, when we have the side hustle, revolution is booming; it’s easy to get into the “rut” of “I hate my job, I want to leave it now!” to “I need to wait until my side hustle pays enough.” It’s also easy to get grumpy throughout the day and blaming the universe.
To battle through your day jobs and side hustles is hard. I don’t deny it. But there is one mistake you should stop yourself from making.
Never give up on the quality of the work you do
It’s easy to do this.
Especially if you can see your ‘freedom’ in the near future. Suppose the path you have chosen is in a completely different field than the current one. Or if you just don’t care. Then, it’s easy to compromise on the quality of work you provide for the company.
It becomes easy to compromise on quality and do the minimal work required to push through the days when you’re unhappy.
What starts as tidbits of low quality here and there grows as a massive spawn, where you don’t want to do the job at all. You end up finishing up the tasks just before the deadlines, submitting the task only because you have to, never caring about what impression you’re setting with others.
Trust me, this is dangerous. And I’ll tell you why.
1. The world is getting smaller every day
There is a huge chance of meeting the same colleague I work with now, 20 years later. Your past finds one or the other way to get to you and bite you back in the ass. So, impressions do matter.
You never know how the people you’re going to work with today are going to help you tomorrow. They might or might not. But do you think it’s worth the risk?
Plus, your network can also get you jobs or opportunities in the future, if required. And that needs a good impression.
2. Carry your work ethics forward
In a world filled with multiple distractions, it’s easy to lose your “passion” for your work from time to time. Having multiple careers is common these days, and frequent career switches are not looked down upon.
Thus it’s easy to not care about your job multiple times throughout your life. And your work ethic continues with you.
Do you want to be called as someone who is “multipassionate, but has great work ethic,” or as someone who “keeps switching jobs”?
3. Keep up the commitment
When you work with a company, you create an unsaid agreement to put your best foot forward for the perks you get from the job. It may be monetary or other benefits.
Not putting your best foot out there goes against the unsigned agreement. Have you given a commitment? Try to fulfill it. Not able to complete? Set the expectations clear with people around you and move on. I might be talking about an idealistic situation here, but this is how people are supposed to work.
I remember being in this hole a couple of months ago. From a person who used to participate in all meetings and extra work proactively, I became a worker who did the minimum. And focus all the time left on my side hustle. Work from home made it even easier to get into the hell hole.
But then, 2 months later, a coworker pointed it out to me, and it was like a slap to my face. I guess it had become too evident that I didn’t like my job, and he told me something that changed me. He said, “This is not who you are. If you truly dislike the place you’re in, have a proper plan for leaving this place. But never compromise on the quality of your work. Because that’s who you are. And that’s your brand.”
The main question all of us have to ask ourselves is, “Who am I? What is my work ethic?”
You’ll definitely get the answer to this question.
I’m a Travel and Social Issues Writer looking to inspire people through my words. Join my newsletter if you want to read more insightful photo essays, adventures of my life, and opinionated pieces. Also, you can check out my visual work here.
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