Work sucks more when your attitude sucks.

This job sucks!” I muttered as I shuffled back to my desk.  Barely had the words left my mouth when a co-worker happily said, “That’s why they call it work and not play, jackass!”

I’ve had A LOT of jobs.  That’s one of the pro’s and con’s of being in the military; every couple of years you get a new job.  Some jobs were great and some SUCKED!   After 30 years of working and 20+ jobs, here’s been my experience on why a job sucks:

1.  Your boss sucks.   He/she may be a micro-manager, a spineless sychophant, a jack-weed, a combination of all OR….just lame.  Regardless, you go home everyday hoping that aliens are real and he gets abducted and probed (repeatedly).

2.  The type of work you do sucks.  It may be above you, below you, dull, dry, tedious, tiring, inane or pointless.  No matter, you hate it!  You wake up every morning hoping that you’ve somehow contracted a rare intestinal virus that will kill you faster than the mind numbing work you do each day.

3.  The amount of work you do sucks.  Due to budget cuts, constraints, downsizing, right-sizing and the overall malaise that has overtaken all of your co-workers, you’re left with the lion’s share of things that had to be done yesterday.  You secretly dream about work gnomes coming in after you leave to finish up the seemingly endless amount of crap that gets thrown on you each day and worry about no one noticing that you died at your desk 6 months ago.

4.  Your co-workers suck.  Billy Backstabber and Suzie Gossiphound make each day so unbearable that you think getting gutted with a butter-knife would be less slow and painful.  Coupled with the work you had to pick up from Jimmy the Sloth, you think of how you could leave, chain the doors, and burn the place down with them still inside. (You wouldn’t do it but a smile comes to your face when you fantasize about the solitude of a day without them).

5.  The atmosphere sucks.  It is so quiet and reserved that you feel as though you’ve gone a special hell reserved for people who buried live kittens under their garage and their penance is to be in an eternal time out.  Or, it reeks of garbage and dirty feet that have been soaked in cow dung and old lady perfume.   Again, you dream of torching the place.

Your job can suck for one, two or any combination of these issues (or all of them).  How do you keep from jumping off a cliff instead of going in to work?  You have 3 options:

1.  Get With It.  Do what you can with what you have.  Put a smile on your face and focus in on what you DO enjoy and what you DO like.  You can’t change people or all of the circumstances but you can change how you interact with them.

2.  Get Over it.  Quit your bitching.  It’s human nature to focus in on the negative.  That’s how we’re built.  Talk positive and you’ll shift your focus to positive.  If you need help, record and watch Jerry Springer episodes when you get home each day.  That will give you some perspective on how good you really have it (at least your mom isn’t really your sister and you just found out she is in love with zombie).

3.  Get Out.  If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.   You’ve got talent, skills and can be charming when you want to be.  It’s easier to find a job when you have one.  If you’ve had all you can stand and you can’t stand no more….don’t go postal, go someplace else.

In the end, I believe that we choose our attitude and can make the best of any situation.  Any job I had that sucked sucked worse when I had a sucky attitude.  I think you’ll find the same.  Get with it, get over it, or get out!