Good morning Dinks. I would like to know where you are as you are reading our blog this morning? Maybe you are in the comfort of your own home with a cup of coffee in hand relaxing on your couch. Or maybe you are in your office at work avoiding all of the tasks that you need to do today.
You may remember that a few months ago (6 to be exact) I found my dream job. I left the banking world of financial planning to enter into the financial world of corporate communications. Every day I go to work and for the majority of the day I do what I love – write.
Through the excitement of a career change I quickly came to realize that my dream job did not come without a few dark clouds. I love my new job and I am working for a really great company, but I could definitely live without a few of my coworkers.
We all need to excel at our jobs because it provides our bread and butter but sometimes it’s hard to focus on the good things when the bad things in our careers can cause so much stress.
Tips to help you shine at your work and love your job
1. Remember your coworkers are not your friends. This is one of the biggest mistakes that I made early on in my career. Some of my best friends are former coworkers, but we became friends after we no longer worked together. If you meet someone at work then your job will always take precedent, keep that in mind when you are sharing information with your friends at work.
The problem with friends at work is that everyone has a different definition of friend. There is a woman at my work who I have told several times that I do not want to be friends with outside of work, yet she continues to ask me to go to lunch and walk home together after work.
I honestly don’t know how I can be more transparent, but it’s becoming a problem. I have anxiety about having to go to lunch with her and endure the 30 minute walk (which is 45 minutes with her because she walks slowly) home with her. Any thoughts?
2. Ignore all the drama. It is so easy to focus on negativity in the workplace and when a group of angry people get together the drama can very quickly escalate. Being known as the office complainer can really hurt your career. I have come to learn that no matter what we say nothing really changes. It’s best to just keep our opinions (even if they are right) to ourselves, smile, do our work and go home at 5 pm.
3. Focus on the tasks that you really love. I love the idea of my job, but I don’t love every single task that I do every day. Instead of getting upset about the tasks that I don’t like in my job – because it makes the task more difficult to complete – I just focus on the parts of my job that I do love. I try to finish the tasks that I don’t like as quickly as possible so that I can move on to something that I do love.
Photo by mkosot
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
This is great advice. I’m currently commenting from work (on my lunch break) and I’m lucky to have the flexibility to do so. I know I’ve gotten pretty close with some of my co workers, but at the end of the day, they really aren’t my friends. I need to focus on doing the best work possible while I’m at work. After all, that’s what the company is paying me for.
This is so true, I have learned in my short career that the word “friend”, in the workplace at least, is a subjective perspective and very circumstantial. Many will throw you under the bus to protect themselves and not expose their insecurities. I am young, highly qualified and my older co-workers see me as a threat at times. Thanks for the great advice as I read this at the perfect time and will settle down and focus on what I love.
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