...my...my...how time flys....

I did the unthinkable one year ago this upcoming week.

Some people seem to think that if you’re not too busy, you’re not really crucial to the organization. These people revel in having full schedules, long working hours and too much work.

Repeat after me: Work does not give you stress. Feeling bad about work gives you stress.


This means that changing your work hours, your responsibilities, your priorities or your work environment is meaningless, unless it also changes the way you feel at work.

Those stress management courses will not do the trick either, unless they can achieve just that. If you’re stressed, you must take charge and make whatever changes are necessary to go from feeling anxious, inadequate or drained at work to feeling appreciated, proud and energetic.

In the midst of this economic turbulence we're facing, I decided to leave my job as a vice president of a company to pursue some long-neglected passions of mine: building a positive atmosphere and teamwork, not listening to someone “drone-on about his financial situation”, helping companies with commercial interiors, and something so self-indulgent I can hardly bear to utter it (getting paid).

What I'm leaving behind is admittedly a middling (but respectable) career in upper management, but one, from the point of view of the working class people, you just wouldn't throw away a big title. My parents didn't go to college, and to them "pissing away" a position as a vice president is about as stupid a move as you can make....but they won't say anything of course.

My grandmother (God rest her soul), for whom was in her teens and early twenties during the Great Depression. Those are the days of waiting in line for blocks of government-issued cheese. I wouldn’t have told my grandma what I’m doing…..leaving a job during very difficult times. She wouldn't get it.

If you're sensible, and lived through such tough times, right now you're thinking about "How to Protect Your Job in a Recession," this is the title of a recent Harvard Business Review article. And here I am throwing mine to the wind! (It was the wind that woke me up one night after announcing to my wife that I was quitting -- is it the word "quit" or the memory of the rattling window that now sends a chill down my spine?) I've always been prone to digress from the straight path, and now I suppose I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

Speaking of money, I do have some savings, but most businesspeople reading this would probably gasp at my foolishness if I told them how much. A few months ago I almost told it to someone I know when I bumped into him at a restaurant while having lunch - he'd apparently been laid off from the banking industry. We briefly commiserated about the uncertain economy and our places in it, but I got the sense he had a pretty thick financial cushion. The tip-off was when he mentioned he had just returned from a trip to the Far East...to "clear his head about it." I thought to myself...here this guy is out of a job and he goes to Asia for several weeks. I had General Tso’s chicken last month…does that count?

Face it…job dissatisfaction is rampant and the work environment may consist of anything from bad bosses, demanding clients, unrealistic expectations. Do not discard it as a minor annoyance as it can make you despondent, cynical and negative. So don't wrap 'happiness' in a gift box and throw it in a dustbin but rather carry it on your face as wide as possible. This is the factor that is going to build your personality and your character....and set you free from bosses that are 'full of themselves.'

Wake up! Face it, even though you dislike it…..your workplace may be filled with people who wait for a chance to hurt you or pull you down or lock you in a dark cave. But equally there will be someone who cheers you up every time you fall. So find coworkers you like and enjoy working with them. Spend your maximum time with them. You can choose to be happy at work with your choices of work companions.

It’s a relatively small step from "liking your job" to loving it. It doesn’t take much and the things we need to do are relatively easy and available to all of us. But the difference in outcome is humongous. As long as you like your job, you’re only a pale reflection of what you could be if you loved it. You’re realizing only a small fraction of your full potential. You’re not having nearly as much fun as you could have.

Millions of people settle for jobs they like. The problem is that when you like your job there isn’t much pressure on you to change. Liking your job isn’t bad for you. It’s certainly much, much better than hating your job – which can make you sick or even kill you.

But when you love your job you are in a completely different league.

So I’m saying that we shouldn’t settle for any less anymore. Let’s make happiness at work the norm rather than the exception. It may take some work, but each and every one of us can get there.

First make that decision for yourself – decide that from now on, you will be happy at work. Then find out what you can do to get to love your job or what you can do to get a job you love. Then do it.

I did.