I wonder if you’re happy in the job that you do

I was really surprised last week to read that when asked “are you happy in your job?” over half the people in the UK that responded said no and I found that really incredible.

Sometimes we think that we’re not very happy but actually, there may be something else going on and the article reminded me of a previous coaching client.

He was incredibly successful from a very young age and had got himself into a senior management role at a manufacturing plant.

On the outside, it all looked very good but on the inside, there was a whole lot of other things going on

There was a lot of responsibility.

There was a lot of stress.

But actually he was managing that okay so after a few coaching sessions, I couldn’t quite work out what was going on.

He always wanted to be an actor and when I said: “what would that give you?”

He said “well then I’d be able to be more creative”

We realised that creativity was really very important to him and he hadn’t been fulfilling that value professionally or personally.

So he went out and got himself some acting classes (and an extra’s role in a TV show!) and he suddenly started to have some more fun in his life.

The issues that had been happening at work didn’t seem so onerous anymore.

With a few little tweaks and changes, things started to become a little bit better and a little bit more manageable.

So if you’re reading this and you’re hating your job, my question to you is – are you really hating your job or is there something else going on?