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SPECIAL REPORT: JUNE 2009
Beware of the Newest Flu Epidemic. . .
Job Funk, It Can Get You Canned!
Last night, my car broke down late at night, in the rain, on a highway. As the tow truck pulled away with my car, Steve, driving the car I called, pulled up to take me home. Wet and tired, I just wanted to be home, Steve wanted to talk.
“I was in sales for a rental car company, got promoted, then canned! Doesn’t make any sense,” he started, “A month ago, my old boss called to see if I wanted to come back.” “Oh, that’s good” I said, half listening. “I asked him to help me connect the dots, why he gave me a lousy review, took pot shots at me, and let me go,” he wondered, “Now wants me back. I don’t get it! He said if he keeps me focused, he thinks I could do a good job. He told me I was in a funk!” He kept talking while I started listening.
“Were you?” I asked. “Well, I hated working for the guy,” he admitted, then paused for awhile and said, as if realizing it for the first time, “Yeah, I guess I was.” It’s starting to make sense.
Job Funk is an insidious and dangerous flu that can inflict anyone at anytime. Job Funk is so contagious, companies have to get rid of anyone showing any signs of it. The top of any list of who to lay off next is always stacked with people with Job Funk. Do you have Job Funk? If you answer "yes" to any of the following questions, you better see your doctor immediately!
- Do you hate working for your boss?
- Is the pit of dread in your stomach a familiar feeling on Sunday nights?
- Are you just going through the motions, doing as little as possible?
- Were you good at what you do and think now you can just coast?
- Are you always scheming to get out of work early, take extra time off?
- Do you feel like your colleagues are all brown nosers?
The good news is that the only doctor that can help you is YOU! Nice work, Doc, you have taken the first important step to getting cured, you have diagnosed the problem. Most people are like Steve, they don’t realize they have the funk until it’s too late. Now, just follow these simple instructions for emergency care to get you out of danger. IMPORTANT NOTE: You must follow the instructions to the letter for it to work!!
EMERGENCY CARE
- Write down ten important things your job is doing for you. For example, making it possible to pay your bills, providing health care benefits, keeping your resume updated, giving you a chance to make connections for a future possibility, getting you out of your spouse’s hair everyday, saving you the despair and embarrassment of being out of work!
- Get clarity of what would make you happy by writing a paragraph of a moment in your life as if it were exactly the way you’d love it to be.
- Once a day, do one small thing to contribute to making that moment real. Maybe you would love to be a chef in Italy, one small thing could be googling Italian recipes, or Italian restaurants in your area, or experimenting with a recipe of your own, changing your screen savor to a villa in Italy, or buying a professional chef hat to wear while cooking, have some fun with this!
- Once a week, do something to help someone else at work be more successful. You could support someone’s new initiative, send an email of kudos to a colleague and cc it to her boss, provide information someone needs in a timely manner, teach someone a shortcut. Once you start looking for ways to help others be successful, you’ll see them everywhere. (If you hate working for your boss, for one month, make the one thing for your boss. Sorry, sometimes medicine doesn’t taste good, but it’s the only way to get better.)
This emergency care will get you out of the funk. As you keep it up over time, it will bring you back to a clean bill of health.
Mark was made a partner and six months later given a box to clear out his desk and a check. He was shocked. That was three years ago and he hasn’t gotten another job. He’s spent that check and still no work. His colleagues will tell you he was miserable for years. So, why did they promote him? Sometimes, if they believe someone has potential, they think that will help the funk. No one else can cure the funk, only the person who has it. The sad thing about Mark is, he still doesn’t know he had the funk, he’s still blaming the people and circumstances.
Often times we suspect we have the funk, but think no one else notices, very dangerous symptom of the funk.
If you work with someone who has the funk, take precautions. Don’t let their funky germs near you, keep focused, keep a distance. If you care about them, send them a copy of this report, you could help save them from getting canned!
Sharon Hoyle Weber
Phone: 781-424-0442
Email: sharon@hotinthepot.com
Cohasset, Massachusetts USA
http://www.hotinthepot.com