Work, work, work

A few weeks ago a friend of mine was changing careers. Alot of his friends were excited for him as he was entering the police academy. He thought he would enjoys the profession, make more money, and do something new & different. A few days into the training for the new job he realized he wasn't serious about the new profession nor did he share the same level of enthusiasm or commitment as his fellow cadets. He quit that day and fortunately he was able to get this old job back. In the process he learned alot about himself.

He and I have talked many times about work. We have talked about everything from doing something we enjoy, working in a healthy environment, working with good co-workers, believing in your company or co-workers, vacation time, frustrations with customers or customer service, and barriers to growing or moving on to something else.

While all this was going on a co-worker of mine has gone on vacation and I'm helping cover for her. I didn't plan to cover most of her work but ended up doing alot of it. I wasn't planning on being a leader for my already swamped co-workers but I took on that role. I wasn't planning on doing tons of data entry or computer related work that required me to sit in front of PC screen all day. I definately wasn't planning on meeting with my supervisor to give an update about our workload and recieve a few kudos from her. To look in my supervisor's eyes seeing she was pleased and hearing I had done well made me realize every conversation about work I had with my friend didn't matter. How much money you make, having postive or fun co-workers, enjoying what you do or how much vacation time we get, none of that really matters. What matters is doing a job well and making people happy.

I can't wait to talk with my friend about work again because I have something really great to tell him.