Job vs Happiness

Bosses act like we have signed over our lives in the employment contract and not 8-9 hours a day or 40-45 hours a week. And they act like it is the end of the world if we make a mistake, even a minor one, that too for the first time.

Bosses need to have a check-in with themselves before they react with their employees. There is something called: “First-Offenders”. And this term will not come into the picture if the offender did not know it was an offense to begin with.

There are two sets of people we have sitting in the top management group: Bosses (whom we already know) and Leaders (we are yet to meet, not in person but personality).

We will not talk about bosses since we already know so much about them.

Let’s talk about Leaders!

If there is a situation however bad of an incident it is: a leader will get the facts from all parties involved before he/she reacts to a particular situation.

A saying I like that most: there are two sides to every coin. And if you are not making an effort to know all the facts before you jump to your conclusions, you will remain a BOSS and never be a leader!

I had a question for a very long time:

Is it just me?

So I keep asking people around me to get me back on my right axis whenever this question plagues me. Turns out, it is not just me!

Let’s rewind for a bit.

When you are stepping into the corporate world as a fresher, it is important to have a boss who can guide you through your initial confusion and not turn your mistakes into life hazards of epic proportions! Some mistakes leads to serious implications and the bosses who stand by their team and help them resolve the issues are the leaders! And are respected by their employees and peers alike.

The way I categorize them: problem solvers are leaders!

How many of them do we have?

I can count on my one hand and still not reach five people I came across with this trait in my years of experience, however long or short it is. Because I did work with a company as large as it can get to a Start-up – okay, make that two.

We do have bosses who would like to sit us through gruesome ranting sessions, implying that it is the end of the world. They consciously or unconsciously put their employees in a state of mind, where they would feel like ending their life for making such an error. Extreme, I know. And that is also the truth! In their defence, it is just their discomfort of the entire situation. And their intent could possibly be not to hurt the employee’s feelings.

But the bigger question here is: Is that okay?

Short answer: NO!

Again, bosses need to have another check-in here with themselves. Is this situation worth ruining the working relationship they have with their employees?

That brings me to my topic of the week!

Is a job worth the happiness of a person?

Short answer again is No!

We all no doubt need jobs to survive but not at the cost of our happiness! Nothing is more important than happiness in life; after all we live only once and do not deserve to be a part of toxic work environment!

Take that from a person who left an organization for this reason within a month.

There are many situations in our work life where we give our bosses the benefit of doubt. But not every boss out there is necessarily making these choices unconsciously. There is a certain percent of this lot who are purposefully cruel and outright mean to their employees for various reasons.

Let’s look at one reason why bosses choose to be mean to their employees: wrong –hire.

I would like to call it the Boss’s fault (not even giving the benefit of doubt here, for good reasons!) One particular candidate goes through an entire process of interview and then gets into your team when you hire them. If you were not able to judge that candidate better right from the start, it is not the candidate’s fault!

And accept!

Accept that you have made a mistake about the wrong hire; it could be a cultural misfit, skill mismatch or any number of other reasons. But that does not give you the right to put the candidate through a mental torture and make them leave you.

You can have a civil conversation about it and part ways cordially. I know the corporate world has a long way to go before we reach this stage.   

And I guess that is okay too, each and every one of us are growing as a person on a daily basis. As long as we are growing..

And many times, the bosses not complain about the work. Because frankly, majority of the times the employees are targeted for reasons other than work.

Mainly it is the ego. The bosses come with an air of superiority trying to suppress their employees making it a hostile work environment rather than being a team and creating a happier and healthier work place.

Back to my question again, is a job worth the happiness of a person?

If you are at this point in your professional life asking yourself this question, you need to leave the boss. As many before me said, people leave their bosses not the company.

Let it go! It is not worth to hold onto things which are causing you distress. Apply this to every situation in life not just personal, especially in professional life!