Winning at Work

Ahem. Hello, I'm Dr. Alfred Yancey, and I'm a scientist. However, during most of my life, I had a dead-end job that paid the bills... but that was all. If you're like I was, and don't have the opportunity to quit your job and find one that you really like, the following suggestions may help you stick things out until you can find something else.

1. Don't take it home with you.
No job is worth getting emotional about-- what happens at work stays at work. Once you've punched out, you can move on to other things-- like fine-tuning your plans to take over the world, which is one of my personal favorites.

2. Treat your time off like a vacation.
Even if you don't get to go anywhere fun, use your time off productively. Take up a new hobby, like knitting or wood carving. Write a blog about something you're genuinely interested in. Craft a story. Paint a picture (or purchase a wooden chair secondhand, and paint it with acrylics!) Take a class locally for something you've always wanted to do-- like ballroom dancing, martial arts, or pottery. Remember-- "life is what happens when you're busy doing something else."

3. Get your finances under control.
Sometimes a bad job can seem worse if your checkbook's not balanced or you're in debt. Stop using the credit cards and work out a budget for things you actually need. Don't spend money on fancy toys like yachts, computers, or the latest-and-greatest cell phone. Avoid impulse buys, especially candy at the register (that's what it's there for). Those little things can add up and get you in serious financial trouble. If you spend $3 a week on candy bars, that's $12 a month, which is $144 a year that you could have been put towards something more important. I'm not saying you can never ever have fun-- just to budget your spending money so that it's not mysteriously vanishing.

4. Make time for relationships outside the office.
No amount of money can make up for quality relationships with your family. No one ever says on their deathbed, "Oh, I wish I'd spent more time at the office!" While doing well at your job may be important to you, there's also more to life.

5. Have multiple sources of income.
If you have a wide variety of interests that you think could bring some money, but they aren't enough for you to live off of... keep the job you have that pays the bills, but try something else on the side as well. You never know when the economy will change, and not having all your eggs in one basket will certainly help.

6. Keep looking.
You never know when you're going to find a job opening that you'll really like.