How do you care about or invest yourself in your job, while still detaching enough so that when clients or coworkers screw you over or destroy your latest project it doesn’t crush you?
Personally, I have to invest something of myself in whatever project I’m working on to be creative, energized, and maintain a high level of quality. Furthermore, I need to turn out good stuff because I work for a small, up-and-coming company and the quality of our product really matters to increase our clientele.
But because we are a small, up-and-coming company, our internal processes aren’t very well established (which means that there are lots of glitches and miscommunications), we can’t afford to hire enough people (which means everyone is rushed and overworked), and we are very much at the mercy of the whims of our clients. We can’t afford to put off clients by saying, “no, we can’t do that.” The net result is that our department works its ass off, has to figure out how to do things we never imagined or trained to do, while at the same time we get screwed right and left by other departments and clients.
Yet, I love my job. And we turn out great stuff. I just am having a hard time handling the rollercoaster of conflicting needs.
So… have you mastered this art of simultaneous commitment and detachment? Even partly? If so, what do you do or tell yourself to maintain this state of zen?
From cognitive therapy (not work-specific), you can use the “three p’s”. When you are getting screwed over, ask yourself three questions: Is it permanent? Will this have a permanent effect on my job and my ability to do it, or is it just another damn glitch that will be forgotten in a week when I’ve moved on the next task? Is it pervasive? Will this affect my entire job, everything I’m working on, or just this one project or part of a project? Is it personal? Does this have anything to do with my performance or abilities, or is it just the nature of the job? These questions are very useful in creating a state of detachment from situations that are emotionally charged.
From The Amazing Race. Sometimes I use what I like to call the Amazing Race approach. If you don’t watch the show, it’s a reality competition in which teams of racers travel around the world following clues. Clues may require them to travel somewhere or perform some task, such as engaging in a native custom or eating an unusual food. Only when they have completed the task do they receive their next clue. Their only goal is to complete the task as quickly and correctly as possible. Once they’ve painted that elephant or paddled across that river, they are done and moving on to the next task. I find that sometimes it helps to compartmentalize my work that way. My “clue” is to complete my current project or task with as high quality as possible. Whether the project is ultimately changed, dumped, or reconfigured is irrelevant. I just look at what I am supposed to be doing now, based on the latest clue, without worrying about the overall context. By the time those racers reach the finish line, they don’t really care whether the rain washed the paint off the elephant, or the canoe ended up being sunk in the river.
Both of these approaches have worked for me in maintaining the balance between “This job is important to me and I need to give it my utmost attention to do it well” and “Why should I even bother when I know we’re going to get screwed over anyway?”
From what I offer, I derive satisfaction. If I don’t offer what I potentially can, then my self-esteem takes a hit, as I’m generally proud of the quality of my work.
As for the detachment part, I try to take a broader perspective. It’s more difficult to do if nothing ever changes, but if you and your team can identify true problems, work towards solving them, and maintain the understanding that it’s an incremental process which cannot be achieved all at once, part of your job satisfaction can be derived from improving what needs improving.
It can be and is very frustrating at times. The best way to make these improvements though is to clearly identify root causes, figure out how to measure improvement, and learning which battles to pick and which to let go. Nothing will ever be perfect, but it can always get better.
If you’re in a job in which gradual and consistent improvement isn’t a possibility, then it’s time to see if there’s a job available where you can make a long-term difference.
I like this! You’re right. Most of this will be forgotten in a week. Check. It’s just part of this one project. Check. And it’s not about my abilities. It’s about other people making decisions or errors that I have no control over. Check. Whew. I feel better!
I can see how this would be useful for many things. I think what I get caught up in is that I have to remember something about painting the elephant to apply to the next time someone presents us with an elephant. This makes it hard to detach. I love the Amazing Race, though.
I’ve had my own business for 8 years. For the most part, it’s been just the two of us - me and my partner. We’ve spent most of our time being over-worked, under-paid, run ragged, yelled at, hacked, ignored and pissed upon. I’ll throw in “under-paid” again for good measure.
But, we kept going. Every single cloud has had a silver lining. We have learned from everything. We rarely make the same mistake twice, or let the same bad situation crop up twice. I am way looser than I have ever been in my life when it comes to problem solving - you realize you just don’t have time to be uptight. Both of us are soooo much better at dealing with customers than we ever have been. We’re making so much more money than we ever have.
And we can honestly look at it all and say “we really worked our asses off to be here.” That’s something in itself. All this stuff we’ve learned over the years continues to pay off.
We’ve also never had a business plan. Still don’t. We are still pretty unorganized. Hell, I just updated our Web site the other day for the first time in 3 years (we make web sites!) We’re just getting around to having business cards printed next week.
Being small has its charms. Having someone to talk to about work is great. You can prop each other up. You can make mistakes and make awesome product as a team. No one else is going to understand what you are talking about with regards to work - other than people you work with.
At the end of the day, though, you gotta let it go. And don’t ever take it out on your team members, you need them. Business is business.
Yes, I do see gradual improvement with stuff we’ve covered before. That’s encouraging. Right now, we keep venturing into new territory, so there are brand new things to screw up all the time! But I’ll have to remind myself that things are gradually improving over the ground we’ve already covered.
I have to keep learning that one over and over again, because my nature is to be uptight. That’s why my work is usually very good. But then I have to let go – it’s true!