All Work and No Play, or…

Photo by Cia da Foto

I woke up at 4am this morning… only about 50 minutes earlier than my alarm goes off on Monday through Friday, but feeling so much more awake. The difference was that I went to bed at about 8:30pm because I knew I was too tired to even read, watch TV, much less do anything productive or fun. 7 hours of sleep is a long time for me. So today I feel really invigorated and ready to conquer the world!

Have a Good Weekend!

As I said “Good Morning” on Twitter, I was greeted by friends who wished me a good weekend and it reminds me of how I rarely differentiate between work days and weekends. Christine Livingston addressed this in her post, The Great Indispensability Hoax. The tweet by AvidCareerist, Donna Svei RT’d Christine’s comment: “It’s OK to take the weekend off. Really!” and the link.

I read multiple comments either directly to me or in passing about having a good weekend. But you see, I love my work and I rarely see it as work. I know my capacity. This past week, I mixed up writing resumes, an executive bio, cover letters, thank you letters, LinkedIn profiles, and blog posts while touching base with clients and colleagues and the occasional house project.

I know the wisdom of taking a break from your work and, of course, I know the old adage, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy…” (or Julie a dull girl.) But I can tell you that I am happier writing and working with my clients than I have ever been in my life. My clients challenge me, writing blog posts is fun for me, and regular readers know I love the interaction of Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the social media tools.

What if you hate your job?

On the flip side, I was reading Alison Doyle’s post last night, How to get fired. Alison gives great points on how careless people have gotten when talking about their jobs. The most interesting section for me in her post was this:

For an example of how easy it is to mess up, searching for I hate my job on Twitter will give you a lengthy list of people who don’t mind sharing that information. Let’s hope the boss isn’t reading their tweets.

I followed her link last night for the “I hate my job” statements on Twitter. This is a live link that changes and the volume of people who say those words amazed me! Partially, at how blatant some of the comments were, and even more, because I was once again struck by how many people who are blessed to have work, really do hate their jobs. I’ve talked about Facebook No-No’s before but in today’s economy to blurt out “I hate my job” in social media or just carrying around a bad attitude is asking to be fired.

I do work long hours and do work at least some hours during most weekends but I love what I do. Many of the people I work with are the same type of people, energized by their work and love what they do. I write resumes to move people who love their jobs into more challenging positions. A second reason I work in the career industry is to help those people who hate their jobs to find something they can love. The third reason I create career marketing solutions is to help people who have lost their jobs. I know that those who are currently looking for work really want to be able to have a new position. When so many people are working hard to find work, it is hard to hear people say they hate their job.

If you need time off on your weekends (or weekdays if you work on the weekends) because you have lost your love for your work, by all means do so to re-energize yourself and as Christine so aptly put it:

Rather than being a trusty, loyal flunky, following the rules, and putting such huge store on turning up regardless, you need to get smart and think about what value you bring to your employer, to your entrepreneurial venture, or to the world that’s unique to you, and deliver it. To use Seth Godin‘s idea, you have to see yourself as an artist, trust that you bring something very special, and put it out there.

You then become indispensable, not for the hours you put in, or for your busy work, but for the difference that is you.

Let me know how you will answer the question: “how’s work?”