by John Ledbury

Created on: January 04, 2008   Last Updated: January 28, 2010

Having a job that you hate is not only wasting your life, but probably you will be unhappy or frustrated. You take it out on those closest to you,maybe not deliberately, but you no longer have that sparkle that you were known and loved for.

Looking around for another job is the obvious thing to do, but probably there are not that many jobs around that you can or want to do. It's no good jumping from the frying pan into the fire, as we say. So what can you do to make the best of your situation.

At work, the atmosphere is not good, it seems that everyone hates you. In your mind, wipe the slate clean of your fellow workers faults that annoy you. See them in a new light, pick up on their good points, praise them and tell them how you wish you could be as good at the job as they are. Take the time to ask how they are.

Maybe they are the way they are because of problems they have at home. Take it on board that normally they wouldn't be so rude and aggressive, had it not been for this problem they have with the wife / husband / boyfriend / girlfriend.

Money troubles can effect people in different ways, and could be behind their moods. None of us would shout it from the rooftops that we cannot pay this months rent or electricity bill, and because it is a worry on our minds, it will effect our moods and how were relate with other people. For a while I worked in a printing factory.

I hated the job but I had to do it as it was all I could get, but in reality a monkey could have been trained to do the work I had to do. The guy at the other end of the machine would shout at me for being too slow or not seeing a fault in the print, and at the end of the day I was just glad to get away.

The trouble is, as soon as I got home, I knew that tomorrow I had to go back there. On the rare days that my machine partner didn't turn up, it was always a better atmosphere with his stand-in. This situation went on for about five months, and I looked daily in the employment advertisements.

Then one day, things got really bad, he shouted at me and swore, saying a lot of nasty things which upset me. During the lunch break he quietly walked over and sat next to me. He started by saying he was sorry about the row this morning, and for being so bad to me in the past. He then told me that for months he had suspected that his wife was having an affair with his best friend, and that last night she admitted it to him.

They had talked and decided to give their marriage another go. From then on, for a while at least, he seemed much better to work with, and when I did do something wrong, he'd make a joke of it. Although someone may give the impression that they don't like us and we are useless, it could be that they have problems that they are too embarrassed or don't want, to talk about.

Before you pack in a job that you hate, try and make the best of it, as for one thing, better jobs wont go to people who regularly chuck jobs in.

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