How to Love the Job You Hate: Job Satisfaction for the 21st Century

Rating:
Summary: Features twelve ways to renew enthusiasm and satisfaction
Review: How To Love The Job You Hate: Job Satisfaction For The 21st Century by business consultant Jane Boucher is especially recommended for anyone dissatisfied with the conditions or circumstances of their employment, unhappy with the nature of their job or the limitations of their career options. How To Love The Job You Hate features twelve ways to renew enthusiasm and satisfaction with your job; three key strategies to get along with irritating bosses; eight effective methods for coping with difficult co-workers; five ways to deal with dysfunctional corporate cultures; more than twenty specific techniques for handling job loss, leaving a bad job, and deciding just when to strike out on your own. Of specific value for employers and managers is the section devoted to retaining good workers. How To Love The Job You Hate is an invaluable addition personal, corporate, or community library reference collections.

Rating:
Summary: Recommended for newer HR professionals and supervisors
Review: The title of this book (How to Love the Job You Hate) is somewhat of a misnomer as the book covers many aspects of the working world, both from the employee's side and the employer's side, including job duties, personality conflicts with bosses and co-workers, self-esteem, generation gaps, employee safety, performance evaluations, and work-life balance.

With such a range of topics, the material on each tends to be necessarily light and rather general. For that reason, as a human resource director, I would not recommend it for HR professionals with more than five years of experience or for the senior manager unless intended as a refreshing reminder of what we can all forget too easily.

With that said, I would recommend the excellent section on performance evaluations for even the senior professional. Performance evaluations are widely misunderstood and very seldom done well. I found myself underlining several tips Boucher put forth, such as, "Think of your managers as detectives, charged with discovering how your employees can be more productive" (now that's a useful performance evaluation!) and "Allow [your managers] to buy-in to the accomplishments of the employee." (Small and mid-sized employers, take heed; nothing motivates like money, and management of staff-too often viewed as a chore-is no exception!)

I would strongly recommend this book for all newer HR professionals as well as for low- and mid-level supervisors. It is especially essential for the first-time supervisor. Some of Boucher's insights are simple common sense (though it never hurts to be reminded of the basics), but many are excellent and occasionally very creative. Boucher's suggestions to employees disillusioned with their jobs to do something different (reorganize the order in which tasks are done, take an aerobics class during lunch or otherwise get out of the office), trade unwanted tasks with a co-worker, avoid complainers who can bring one further down, and get involved in your company's community service activities are all sound, though some of her suggestions (rewrite your job description, take on special projects) may not be available to all readers, depending on their situations. The section on personality types is an excellent reminder that differences are not always bad-and that there will be people in every workplace different than you. (If not, you'll have a very one-sided, and likely less successful, company!) I do wish Boucher would have included a more extensive questionnaire for personality type in an appendix, perhaps, rather than the short and generalized chart provided, as I found it be less accurate than true personality tests.

The book also includes occasional well-placed examples where readers can see a piece of advice used in a real-life situation. The results in these vignettes are not always perfect (and I do appreciate the realism, very much), but the situation often does improve. (However, I should note that I did not appreciate the example on page 79, which praised a person who offered a highly unethical idea that subsequently doubled the sales of his employer.)

Self-talk is also mentioned in the book. I can't emphasize how important that can be, not only on the job but in life in general. Boucher says, "If you make a mistake... be as understanding with yourself as you would be with another person who made an honest mistake. ...You would never say, 'I can't imagine how you could be so stupid as to have made that mistake' or 'Only a complete idiot would do that.'" Boucher also reminds us, "Our society tells us we must be perfect, fast, strong and always say yes." While we would like to always be so, the fact is that we necessarily have limitations, and it does no good (in fact, it does harm) to berate ourselves for it.

There are two sides to every coin. Employers should take note, not only of the performance evaluation section, but the section on employees' needs. Boucher rightly observes, "There is a fine line between pressing for better productivity and expecting your employees to work long hours for little pay just to slice a thin line of profit." Yes, business is business, but one should never forget what that business is made of-people. Also, the goal-setting section in chapter 16 will be helpful for employers and employees alike.

As Boucher reminds us on the first page, "What happens at work affects every other area of our lives." Find out how to make it better.

Rating:
Summary: Sensible Steps to Greater Happiness at Work
Review: This book helps you understand the elements of your unhappiness, and find ways to change the situation for the better. It is filled, from cover to cover, with sensible, practical ways to make change one of the biggest parts of your life: your career.

This book would have helped most of the unhappy workers I have known. There is also a section for employers that might prevent many people from needing help, if its suggestions are applied. If you are ready to fix the problems that are making you less happy than you could be, or if you know someone who might be ready to take charge of their happiness at work, then this is a good book to begin with.

Rating:
Summary: Sensible Steps to Greater Happiness at Work
Review: This book helps you understand the elements of your unhappiness, and find ways to change the situation for the better. It is filled, from cover to cover, with sensible, practical ways to make change one of the biggest parts of your life: your career.

This book would have helped most of the unhappy workers I have known. There is also a section for employers that might prevent many people from needing help, if its suggestions are applied. If you are ready to fix the problems that are making you less happy than you could be, or if you know someone who might be ready to take charge of their happiness at work, then this is a good book to begin with.