How To Love Your Job - No Matter What

February 18, 2011

Interview with Dr. Tim Irwin, author of the book Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled: The Qualities You Need to Stay Out of Harm's Way and Thrive at Work

________________

Mike Carruthers:
Why do some people love going to work and others hate it?

Tim Irwin:
I find that the people who are really passionate about their jobs have really found a way to connect who they are with what they're doing. And we do that by connecting with the customer. Line of site to the customer, I find, is the real key to this whole thing.
 

Psychologist Dr. Tim Irwin, author of the book Run With the Bulls ...

I was in a tire and brake shop the other day and it was like most tire and brake shops. There were these pictures all over the place. Now what's the first reaction, when you think of what kind of pictures and photographs are you going to find in a tire and brake shop? The first thing, you know, well, cars, or Miss January or… but it was not. These were photographs of families. These guys were making a connection between bolting on these fiberglass brake pads and the people that they're serving. They recognize that their job is to keep these young families safe and that's the kind of connection that I think managers need to help people make.

But it's not only management's job. Everyone can change their attitude about their work, just a bit.

You remember the old story about the three brick layers and the passerby asks the first one what was he doing, he said he was laying bricks. The second one said he was building a wall and the third one said he was erecting a cathedral. And so I think sometimes workers have to really develop this idea themselves. They have to look for that transcendent purpose. By the way on a practical level, I find that people who thrive at work get paid more.