Have you checked out at work? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Dan Cable, a professor at London Business School. They talk through what to do when you aren’t excited about your organization, new assignments don’t hold your interest, or all the best projects go to more senior employees.
From Alison and Dan’s reading list for this episode:
HBR: Why People Lose Motivation — and What Managers Can Do to Help by Dan Cable — “Philosophers have been telling us for millennia that people have an innate drive to show others who they really are, yet somehow organizational life often runs afoul of the human desire for self-expression. Even today, when we extol the virtues of creativity and innovation, we still see bureaucratic job titles, inflexible roles, and standardized evaluation systems that generate anxiety instead of excitement and self-expression.”
HBR: Ten Charts That Show We’ve All Got a Case of the Mondays by Gretchen Gavett — “If you’re in a workplace in America right now, chances are most of the people around you are pretty checked out. You might even be plodding through the day yourself, counting down the hours until you can fly out the door. Or you’re doing your very best to make your unhappiness known to anyone within earshot.”
HBR: Managing Yourself: Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want by Amy Wrzesniewski, Justin M. Berg, and Jane E. Dutton — “Job crafting is a simple visual framework that can help you make meaningful and lasting changes in your job—in good economies and bad. But it all has to start with taking a step back from the daily grind and realizing that you actually have the ability to reconfigure the elements of your work.”
HBR: How to Fall Back in Love with Your Job by Carolyn O’Hara — “Our work relationships have a profound effect on how we perceive our jobs. And since passion can often be contagious, surrounding yourself with energetic people, whether at the office or in professional networking groups, can help revive a sagging interest in work. Attend professional networking events and mixers in order to meet peers. Meeting new people committed to their careers and explaining your own goals and passions to them can help renew your sense of mission and expose you to aspects of your job that you may not have previously appreciated.”