Why Do You Hate Your Job?

January 13, 2009
Interview with Charlotte Shelton, author of Quantum Leaps: Seven Skills for Workplace ReCreation

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Mike Carruthers:
It's no secret that a lot of people are unhappy with their job, however…

Charlotte Shelton:
We have 1 in 4 people equating the workplace with a prison and being very frustrated because they can't change the prison that they feel caught in.

Charlotte Shelton, author of the book Quantum Leaps: Seven Skills for Workplace ReCreation says much of the stress and frustration we experience at work is really internal.

80% of what we see in our workplaces is generated inside our minds. This doesn't mean that there's not a lot that needs to change in workplaces in this country and around the world - there is. But we can never bring about lasting change by imposing it. We bring about lasting change by learning to see it differently. In other words, most of us in most of our workplaces still feel that we're victimized by what happens externally instead of understanding that we have choices about how we react to it.

So the next time you're at work and you're all stressed out and things are going haywire and your boss is driving you nuts, Charlotte says, ask yourself …

"Would I rather be right or would I rather be happy?" And if I choose to be happy, "What reaction best serves my piece of mind and my joy in the moment?" Is it reacting to it or is it choosing to be detached from it. But in the long run we have to decide whether we want to be right or whether we want to be happy.

Complete interview is not available.