Whenever we talk about work the hours nine to five pop into our heads. But not all people have the schedule that society considers to be the norm. Security, law enforcement, transportation, and casino jobs all require night owls to keep business running smoothly until the sun rises the next day. Do people actually prefer working the night shift? What are the pros and cons of such awkward hours?
My best friend recently switched from working the day shift to the 11 pm to 9 am night shift. This change has affected our friendship and our time spent together drastically. My friend works in a home helping mentally challenged girls with life’s everyday tasks. She gets home in the morning and will do errands and hang out until she goes to bed in the afternoon. She will usually wake up around 7 pm and leave for work around 10 pm. This means that I get a 3 hour window to hang out with my friend at night when we are both home from work. She rarely gets any good sleep and is too tired and cranky to hang out. The cons from working a night shift can be lack of social life, insomnia and health problems.
The cons might have you thinking why would any sane person want these hours but there are a lot of pros that come with the third shift. My best friend has a lot of down time. When she goes to the house at 11 pm all of the girls are sleeping. She doesn’t have to wake them up and start cooking and cleaning until 5 am! For truckers and law enforcement it is just as slow and this means time to read a book, watch TV, or study. Not only is work slower and more relaxed, but there is no traffic to deal with. The commute is easier and you get off of work in the morning when stores are opening and you can do your errands or grocery shopping right away.
There are many pros and cons to consider when thinking about working the night shift. Is it worth it to you to not have to deal with cranky customers in return for your night life with friends taken away? It is all about where your priorities lie and if the night shift will help make your life easier or not in the end.
When you get rejected, whether it is from a passed promotion or failing to get your dream job, you feel miserable. You want to build a fort around you with the covers from your bed and cry, stare blankly at the wall, or eat a quart of ice cream. It happens to the best of us. But there are ways to manage your rejection so you don’t waste days or weeks hanging your head in grief.
After you experience rejection in the workplace or on the job hunt, learn how to increase your performance. It’s like thinking angry thoughts to keep your drive going while working out. You can’t let “them” win. Whether it is a boss, hiring manager or co-worker you can’t let them get the best of you. The worst thing you can do when you are rejected is to reduce your skills and work ethic. Rejection should drive you to work even harder.
Make sure you are disappointed in your performance and not in yourself. You can always improve on your actions or your words and provide a better performance next time. Take a step back and evaluate yourself. You know if you have been slacking or not taking your job as seriously as you should be. Improve on the areas that you find yourself weakest in. Just remember that getting rejected is only one strike against you. You can and will have many more strikes during your career lifetime. Believe in yourself and pick yourself back up after the rejection bee stings.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: balance, Europeans, work ethic, workaholism
Many Americans are workaholics. Its part of our blood, we are just born with it. It rarely crosses our mind that we only get two weeks of vacation a year and that we spend way more than forty hours a week at work. Why haven’t Americans tried to adopt a more European approach to our work ethic? Have six weeks worth of vacation time, shut down business in the afternoon for an hour or two of lunch, and go to museums and have hobbies in our free time. Now that sounds like a better life to me.
I recently saw a story on “60 Minutes” about the happiest country in the world which was not some tropical island or beach getaway. The happiest country was Denmark. The Danes are happy because they keep low expectations and they realize there is more to life than power and wealth. Most of the Danes interviewed said they could never live in America because all of us are workaholics and greedy. If we can’t have the number one spot in our company we become depressed because we had such high expectations. Maybe the Europeans are right; maybe we do need to spend more time with family, friends, reading books, going to museums, and having hobbies.
In America we have yet to master the work/life balance that they have in Europe. Unfortunately work is our life. I wonder if companies in America suggested having an 8% pay deduction in return for six weeks of vacation a year if we would jump at that opportunity. I think that Americans need to adopt a more relaxed mindset so we won’t be stressed out all the time. Not everything is urgent. Europeans rarely respond to an e-mail on the same day they receive it and no one expects to get much work done in the month of August. We need to change our standards and open our eyes to the happier countries around the world. I think the Europeans are on to something here.
Have you ever heard of the squirrel effect? I recently read about the squirrel effect which compares the storage and hoarding of nuts by a squirrel as equivalent to that of human beings in the workplace. Like the squirrel, people often hide what they deem important in the corporate world. What do people value most at work? Their ideas. People feel that the more information they store the more powerful they will be. Unfortunately, this cannot be true for long term success. Here’s why:
The misrepresented notion is that information gives you control. This power will reflect poorly on your image because you are not being a team player. Co-workers want to share the wealth of knowledge so everyone in the company can benefit instead of playing survival of the fittest. Ultimately you will lose the trust of others by hoarding your ideas. People don’t trust people who control them and don’t share information that is needed for everyone’s survival.
You have one brain and a lot of good ideas. I’m sure the person sitting next to you at work has just as many brilliant thoughts. Combining these thoughts can make your team valuable at work and eventually achieve more success. Stop darting around the office with your beady little eyes waiting to bury your wealth of ideas. You aren’t a squirrel and you don’t need to hide your nuts from predators. Start trusting and stop hoarding.
You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.
Oprah Winfrey
Most of us hate our job. We dread Mondays and we count down the minutes until the work day is over. The problem is that we all see work as a means to an end. We work so we can earn money and pay our bills. It seems so hard to have passion at work. When I say passion I don’t mean just loving your job but actually enjoying going to work and having the time fly by. Oprah obviously has passion so how can the average person get a little slice of that?
1. Act passionately. Share your passion with others and your energy will consume the entire office. Don’t be passive and wait for the job to become fun. You have to act and it will come.
2. Use your brain. Be innovative and think of new things. Conquer your mundane routine tasks and move on to achieving new goals with creative approaches.
3. Self motivate. You don’t need daily ramp up sessions from your boss to get your blood flowing. Have your own drive and work through bad situations by yourself. You will only be stronger if you can fuel your own passion.
4. Sharpen your skills. Make sure you are consistently learning and developing skills. The skills you had in the 80’s might need to be revived a little. Don’t lag behind in your knowledge around the office; that will just depress you. Keep up with your skills and you will be passionate to learn more.
Find something you like doing and pour all of your passion into it. Work is a large part of our lives and we don’t want our motto to be “Thank God It’s Friday”. There is so much more to live for than the weekend and if you can find even an ounce of passion in your job then you won’t be reminded that you are at work.
