YOUR CURRENT JOB: IS IT WORTH KEEPING?

You have a job, and believe it or not a choice. Everyday you choose to go to that job as opposed to looking for another.
There are many factors keeping you there, but there are many factors that should be reviewed. Change is hard, especially if you are comfortable in your current position.

  1. Current compensation - can you get better benefits and salary or hourly rate at another job? This does not mean you have to leave the company, there may be better positions within your current company. As of the late 1990's (Y2K compliance check), raises to people staying in their current position at the same company have been within a percentage point or two of the rate of inflation. To better your standard of living, you will most likely have to change your job company or both. One advantage of transferring within the company is that you usually you keep your seniority and the associated benefits. When changing jobs, the first year in the "new" company is long, as very few companies allow new employees to take vacation.
  2. Are you going anywhere in your career field or are you stagnating? In many positions that employ some type of technology, your job should be changing, even at a slow rate. You should not feel like a machine going through the same motions for any long length of time. For example, a programmer may spend a lot of time supporting an older version of a product, but some time should be spent on learning the technologies that make up the newer products. As the customer base upgrades to the newer product, the support technician should follow the clients' lead
  3. Has your job changed for the worse? Extra tasks without the extra pay? New boss or coworkers?
  4. Etc...
 Sounds like you are comparing two offers? In a sense yes - your current employer is offering to pay you for coming to work, so you should review other offers on occasion.

Advice

 You may have bought this book because you may be uncomfortable in your current employment situation. Nothing like some "friendly" advice from the boss to make anyone feel uncomfortable. If you've done something wrong, weather you know it or not, the advice is just that. It's your boss's way of saving his and your butts without taking any disciplinary action. Such phrases like "If I were you I would (not)...", "I heard rumors about someone who..." or "You know what really irks..." usually indicate a boss that either is willing to overlook something if it's corrected soon or is willing to give you some general knowledge without giving any incriminating information.

Other forms of advice should make you feel uncomfortable. Such quotes as "As a family man...", "As sole bread winner..." or the "If I were you I'd know enough (not) to..." are usually the beginnings of a threat or some other way of talking down to you. Such "advice" is usually a form or cohesion as to do something for someone who does not want to do it themselves.

Yes I abused pronouns intentionally because very few bosses are ever going to actually ask someone to do anything against company policy or directly ask anyone to look the other way. No manager would ever threaten an employee, but an employee may take "advice" or "suggestions" the wrong way.

Coworkers

Coworkers and customers play a part in the workday. Customers are what keep the company alive.

Only the government can piss people off and survive. (How many people have you seen happy about an IRS audit?) Coworkers can not do their job at all leaving someone else to do it, carry just their own weight or help others as well. The worst situation to be in (an usually the one of the lowest paid) is to be working directly with the customers with a lousy set of coworkers.

The worst place for this is in a retail store. You are physically surrounded by customers who can spot you because of your uniform. There is no where to hide from the customers, and there is no one else around to help.

When doing someone a favor, be careful as "today's favor is tomorrow's expectation." Weather it's something your boss asks you to do, or as a team player, you do to help out a fellow coworker, be careful that the task does not make it's way to your list. The easiest way to cover yourself is to make the other person ask each time for your help before you start any task that is not your responsibility. If you are in the spirit of volunteering, always ask the person before you do any of their tasks. By having to answer you, that person is now a position where they have to recognize the fact that you are performing one of their tasks. By asking, you also cover yourself in the event you make a mistake, as that person is responsible for the successful completion of that task. If the person says no, then don't do it -- if something goes wrong it'll be all your problem..

Your Life

Life changes will change your priorities; what you need from a job.
May put higher pay as your number one priority.
May have you looking for a job much closer to home.

Your in laws moving in with you may send looking for a job that requires travel keeping you on the road (away from home) for days, week and maybe months at a time.

Your Career Field

Also changes in your career field may prompt you to reconsider your current position. For example, one will not find too many (if any) help wanted ads anywhere for a Web Master in any publication dated before 1992. The same holds true for a PC (personal computer) programmer and the 1970's. What does the future hold? Change - that's all I can tell knowledgeably tell you.

Your Knowledge

Changes in your personal knowledge may also open new doors for you. Just for fun you decided to learn HTML, though you have never written a computer program, you may have made new options for yourself. If you are in advertising, public relations or any other type of customer contact position new opportunities may await you in your current position. Instead of answering a phone all day, you may be asked to put FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) on the company's web site. Other companies may want your combined skills instead of watching a programmer and an advertising executive argue about what can be done with a Web page.

Your Interests

Your interests may have changed as well. As a career in insurance may become way too boring or political, you may look to go into a completely different industry. You may also still like insurance, but may want to apply your skills in a different manner. For example, instead of selling insurance, look for a big company which needs an insurance manager or benefits coordinator; someone to buy or manage insurance for the company.

If your enthusiasm for the job is fading, take heart, you do have options.
  1. Change your job description by adding interesting items, delegating boring ones to others
  2. Change positions with in the company
  3. Get a similar position in another company
  4. Change jobs and companies
  5. Apply your skills differently - for example go from selling to buying.
  6. Start your own business (buy someone else's book - I do not want to get into that)
  7. Spend $1 to $5 per week on lottery tickets and dream.
In short, reconsider going to your current job from time to time just like you'd consider accepting or rejecting the position when receiving the company's offer. Of course you will have a better picture than when you were first offered the position. Remember, unless you are in the military, in prison or doing something illegal, no one is putting a gun to your head forcing you to go to work. If you are in the habit of eating, you feel compelled to go to work, but take the time to see if the money is greener elsewhere. If you are careful (nobody at the current job finds out), the worst that may happen is that you find out that your current position is really not all that bad.