Joy and the Workplace

Monday through Friday there is one universal master of time and controller of calenders: the Emperor of Employment. While not as widely recognized by name as Chronos, the Greek god and keeper of time, the Emperor of Employment currently plays an active role as ruler over people’s schedules.

You see, for today’s workforce, time is not our own. Under the Emperor’s command, we spend the majority of our walking hours involved in work related activities. From commuting to work to being at work, commuting home from work, preparing for work-related obligations, and staying connected to work via various platforms, us professionals, in all fields, dedicate so much of our time to our occupations. And how does the Emperor of Employment sway so many of us to commit ourselves to our work? The promise of financial security.

It’s a necessity and worthwhile goal for us all, and yet, it’s possible that in our hunt for financial security we have lost focus of what really matters. Some of us have lost the pursuit for excellence, others of us have lost pride for the tasks we do, but the most commonly misplaced concept is a sense of direction and an understanding of the life’s path on which we wish to travel.

Like most people, we are often guilty of losing site of why we do what we do. Yesterday however, we were reminded of our internal aims by a blog post by Mark Schaefer, CEO of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. In his July 19th post, Mark reminded his readers that the goal of life is to be joyous. Such a goal can only be achieved “If you know why you are on your path, then you also have internal guideposts to lead the way.” Being joyous requires you to know why it is that you undertake various tasks and how the completion of these tasks brings you closer to achieving your life’s goals.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the benchmarks set by external loci of control, but why should external entities quantify you and your worth? Measure your success by your own ruler, by achievements that mean something to you and reflect what you want to contribute to the workplace, to your field, and to the world.

Stephen Covey, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, also talks about the importance of establishing personal goals and proactively setting out to attain these goals. At the end of the day, the responsibility for our individual destinies, the achievement of our personal goals and the experiencing of joy rests on our individual shoulders.

Yesterday, recognizing all of this, we chose to restrain the Emperor of Employment and assess for ourselves why it is that we work for this company, and what it is we hope to achieve here as part of the CRM and PSA software development team. And here are some of our realizations:

We enjoy toiling over the same projects to make them perfect because there is an inherent value to a job well done. We show up to work day after day not just because of the paycheck, but because we believe in the value of our software. We derive joy from the start-up and small to mid-sized IT business owners who thank us for providing them with a business automation software that really helps them streamline their workflow without depleting their bank accounts.

After evaluating our work and our commitment to our work, it turns out, we aren’t slaves to the Emperor of Employment after all. We truly do derive joy from the work we do.

So, thank you for helping us reach our personal employment goals and for helping to bring joy to our office!

Until next time,
Success Team

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