Rereading Authentic Happiness over the weekend, I was struck again by the chapters on strengths and virtues. Seligman, often described at the Father of the Positive Psychology movement, created the VIA Survey of Character Strengths. And particularly, how that applies if you really hate your job.
VIA Survey of Character Strengths
You can take the VIA survey for free by registering here. The survey provides your top five signature strengths.
Using your strengths
But it is what you do with this that is of most interest to me.
Seligman goes on to talk about how people either have a job, a career or a calling. He says that whilst in the past it was thought that callings (where work is fulfilling in its own right without regard for money or advancement) were reserved for prestigious and rarefied work,
now we know that any job can become a calling and any calling can become a job.
Making a job a calling
There’s been plenty of research on this – from hotel cleaners, to hospital orderlies and beyond. And it is clear, you can craft your work to make it meaningful by using your strengths and finding purpose in it.
Now, sometimes a job really is beyond this. But Seligman says that usually, even in the most dire of work situations, by using your strengths you can transform your job into something tolerable, bearable, even something positive.
Really really hate your job?
So, if you really, really, really hate your job, and leaving today isn’t an option, then think whether you can reframe the role given your strengths. Do the survey: your strengths may give you options around developing a plan to leave the role in the future, or to make it more tolerable, or in the best of cases, to reframe it completely. It’s better than just sitting there, doing nothing.
Until next week, happy leading.
