We devote so much time to work that to see in it only a source of income would mean to devalue most of life. But what if our values contradict the situation that surrounds in the office?

Work allows us to realize the potential, show our skills and abilities, leave a mark in this world. But not everyone immediately understands which occupation suits him.

When choosing a job, we often focus on generally accepted criteria – the prestige of the company, the size of the salary, a promise of rapid career growth. But what is significant for one can be meaningless for the other.

And the difficulties that we are faced with the workplace sooner or later – conflicts, failures, a feeling of boredom or internal discomfort – make you overestimate the choice and ask the question: is it really that I am doing what I do?

“To bring the meaning of all life only to work is not very correct,” notes the business trainer Mark Kukushkin. – But this satisfaction can only be experienced on condition that the work will at least keep and retain the values that are in our private life, and at the maximum will open up new meanings. Will give our activities a larger scale and significance “.

But, unfortunately, this does not always happen

. A small consulting company, in which 25-year-old Maria worked, had its own mission to “cause good” to customers: to understand their problems and offer the best solutions.

But soon a large company absorbed the company with a more detached and even cynical attitude to doing business. Maria set a new task: selling services without delving into the subtleties of client queries.

“I had to decide: what I actually want,” says Maria. – get a salary or remain honest in working with clients? I realized that it is important for me to look at myself in the mirror and not experience negative emotions about what I do. And I left the company “.

You can’t leave

Is it always a discovery of dissonance between personal and corporate values is a sign that “it’s time to blame” and look for another job, as Maria did?

“Not at all,” says Mark Kukushkin. – Often we have the opportunity to influence the situation, so you should try to talk with the leader, with colleagues. “.

This was what 32-year-old Anton did when he was invited from a small, democratically organized private business to a large industrial company. It turned out that the new boss leads the team in the authoritarian style, which does not imply feedback and exchange of views.

Colleagues reconciled, but Anton was important open communication, and he began to punch this wall. He directly asked: “Can I count on your review, I would like to understand that you are not satisfied with my report?”

Gradually, the leader began to allocate time to discuss work with each employee. And the atmosphere in the unit has changed.

There are circumstances that cause internal discomfort of such a force that no incentives can drown it out

In a situation where you can’t agree, weigh the pros and cons, to understand: is the compromise achieving the meaning that creates the work, and that it is valuable for you personally?

Your position allows you to pay for a mortgage, spend the whole family a vacation at sea, but whether this bowl will outweigh another, on which is irritation, a feeling of emptiness and unrealization?

“As a result of“ control weighing ”you can decide: I will continue to work here, because the values and the meaning that I create in my project is more important for me than the inconvenience associated with the demotivating control style,” Mark Kukushkin thinks. – But there are circumstances that cause internal discomfort of such a force that no incentives can drown it out.

Usually it is easy to recognize: physical stress and clamps arise in the body, the same thoughts are constantly scrolling in the head. You are forced to psychological violence against others – pressure, blackmail, demand to report to them? It is worth leaving immediately, such actions destroy the personality “.