Does Your Job Spark Joy?

January 31, 2019

A few weeks ago, I got caught up in binge watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix show “Tidying Up.”

Marie is an organizational consultant who has written numerous books on the subject and goes around teaching people how to get their houses organized. At the beginning of the process, she asks her clients to focus on what “sparks their joy.” According to Marie, those things that do not spark joy, should be gotten rid of. I consider myself an “organization junkie.” I’m always purchasing baskets, boxes, and other gadgets that will help better organize my life. By the end of Marie’s last show, I had adopted a few tips and found myself reorganizing my socks, nightgowns and underwear drawers! I looked at my closet, but decided it was too big a project to tackle.

I also started thinking about how this “Spark Joy” philosophy transfers to our careers. 

According to 2015 data from Gallup, only 32 percent of employees in the U.S. are engaged by their work. Their data, which was largely unchanged from 2014 and previous years, shows that 51 percent of employees are unengaged, and 17 percent are actively disengaged.

Remember when you landed your current job? It was exciting to start fresh and use your skills in a new environment. However, over time, for some reason or another, you begin to say to the job, I’m just not into you anymore. Or, as the Righteous Brothers sang, “you’ve lost that loving feeling! Now it’s gone, gone, gone….””

So, what happened to this once exciting opportunity that you’ve been waiting for all your life? Is it time to jump ship? Not so fast—especially if you don’t know what you want next. But how do you get back to loving what you do? Here are some suggestions:

• Stretch Yourself—You might say, I’m too busy already.  Yet the truth is, one of the reasons the job was exciting in the beginning is because you were learning new things. So even if you have extensive experience, you can become a student again and learn something new by reading, attending a conference, or volunteering for a special task force.
• Get Out of a Rut—Are you hanging with complainers, eating at your desk everyday or just running on the hamster wheel with no time to think or be creative? I can recall in one job, I literally ate at my desk for six months straight. I finally realized that I needed to build a network and began strategically setting up lunch dates with other communications colleagues. It ultimately provided exposure and I was asked to serve on various committees that strengthened my personal brand.
• Ask for Help—People don’t quit companies, they generally quit managers. Let your manager know you’d like feedback and want opportunities to learn new skills. This way, when opportunities arise, your manager will know you are interested.
• Mentor Others—Share your knowledge with others. As a mentor, you can help fill knowledge gaps and support others in their career journey. That’s what great leaders do. And you may learn something new by listening to another’s perspective.

Before you decide to move on, try to find the good things about the job that sparks joy. And, if you need to, take some time to organize your space, get rid of unnecessary thinking and make room for additional growth.