{"id":10239,"date":"2022-02-14T10:38:54","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T10:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1380416"},"modified":"2022-02-14T10:38:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T10:38:54","slug":"my-job-is-just-a-job-and-thats-totally-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=10239","title":{"rendered":"My job is \u2018just a job\u2019 \u2014 and that\u2019s totally fine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/growth-quarters?filter_last=1&amp;fit=1280%2C640&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2022%2F02%2Fboring-jobs-1.jpg&amp;signature=bea4b722643fb118aaffd201fc555b99\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Our jobs\u2014what we do\u2014hover heavily over our very existence. Before the pandemic, a lot of job advice was about pursuing your passion, as though our purpose in life must be defined by our job or hustling till we drop from exhaustion. Now, all I hear about is burnout and <a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/how-we-work-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">The Great Resignation<\/a>. Either way, the conversation about our lives is always a conversation about our work.<\/p>\n<p>Why do our jobs have to dominate so much of our life? What if there\u2019s another way to look at work?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe your job is just a job.<\/p>\n<p>I like my job, but the job that I do doesn\u2019t define who I am. As much fun as fussing over words can be, technical writing is not my passion. Given my past jumps across jobs and industries, it may not even be my career. And that\u2019s ok.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s ok to think of your job as \u201cjust a job.\u201d It\u2019s still important to do it well, but there\u2019s no harm in thinking of it the way <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/job\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">the dictionary does<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201ca regular remunerative position\u201d;<\/li>\n<li>\u201csomething that has to be done,\u201d like grocery shopping or filling up your car\u2019s gas tank;<\/li>\n<li>or \u201csomething done for private advantage.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That last one\u2014private advantage\u2014can range from the mundane (grocery money) to the fantastic (save up to retire early). The point is, a job is just a job: an exchange of your labor for your employer\u2019s cold, hard cash. But it\u2019s also something that you can use to your advantage to help you further your personal goals.<\/p>\n<h2>Use your job to learn new skills<\/h2>\n<p>If your work provides resources for learning and development, use them.<\/p>\n<p>Learn skills that will increase your pay. My friend Liz got her master\u2019s degree program fully reimbursed by the school where she teaches. She learned new skills and got a pay bump once she finished. At Zapier, where I work, employees have a budget we can use for conferences and continuing education. I\u2019ve used mine to learn more about things like project management and content design. These skills will help me be better at my current job, yes, but they\u2019ll also help me leverage a higher salary at whatever my next job is.<\/p>\n<p>Learn skills for personal fulfillment. Another friend of mine, Nina, asked her employer to pay for her art classes. She\u2019s an engineer-turned-designer, and she was able to make the case that art classes would improve her skill set. In the meantime, she got to do something that brought her joy.<\/p>\n<p>Learn skills to switch roles. Have you ever been interested in another type of job? Find someone at work who has the role that you want, and reach out to them to learn more. Mika, a user experience researcher here at Zapier, started on our recruitment team. But she\u2019d always been interested in user experience (UX) research, so she tried it out and eventually made the switch. Maybe you make that switch inside your current <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/topic\/business\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">business<\/a>, or maybe you shadow someone in your business<span><\/span>&nbsp;and then apply for roles elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h2>Use your job for the benefits package<\/h2>\n<p>If your employer provides benefits, max them out as much as possible. Whatever form they take, you\u2019ve earned them. If a store clerk was giving you $5 in change, would you refuse that?<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes those benefits might not be flashy, but you can still use them to your advantage. Years ago, I had a second job as a restaurant hostess. It didn\u2019t pay much, and it didn\u2019t provide insurance, paid leave, or company-matched retirement contributions. But what it did offer was a meal for each shift that I worked. I earned a paycheck, saved money on food costs, and got to eat at a high-end restaurant. That was something I couldn\u2019t afford on my own, so it was a great perk.<\/p>\n<p>My coworker, Deb, just used her office setup budget to buy a fancy new Wi-Fi router. Her Zoom calls don\u2019t lag anymore, and side benefit\u2014her Netflix now streams like a beast. The point: make sure you know every benefit available to you, and make the most of it.<\/p>\n<h2>Use your job to build relationships<\/h2>\n<p>I know, I know. This sounds like a fairy tale ending. But when you spend 40 hours a week with other humans, you\u2019re bound to develop some kind of relationship with one or more of them (hopefully positive ones?). You don\u2019t have to be interested in becoming lifelong friends with your coworkers, but there\u2019s at least value in networking with them.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve shared resources with coworkers, learned from my peers about something I didn\u2019t know but needed to, and found new jobs through old colleagues. I\u2019ve even made lasting friendships through work. (Sorry, I had to wrap it up in the fairy tale ending after all.)<\/p>\n<p>So yes, it\u2019s ok to view your job as just a job\u2014I do. But that doesn\u2019t mean the paycheck is the only thing that\u2019s valuable about it.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article by Michelle S. was first published on the Zapier blog. Find the original post&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/in-defense-of-just-a-job\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/my-job-is-just-a-job-and-thats-fine\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our jobs\u2014what we do\u2014hover heavily over our very existence. Before the pandemic, a lot of job advice was about pursuing your passion, as though our purpose in life must be defined by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}