A Shift in Mentality

As some of you know, I am currently not 100% satisfied with my job. Personality clashes and feeling largely underwhelmed by office procedures and responsibilities are the main causes of my dissatisfaction, weighing on my mind recently. It's an unwelcome source of stress, affecting me physically and mentally. Not so great.

It came to a head yesterday, when I worked 11 hours due to a business meeting we had at 5pm in Sunnyvale (an hour's drive). The work I did for it, under tight deadline, wasn't read by anyone from my work, much less by the other company. Frustration was running high.

However, I had a rather enlightening conversation with a one Ms. Lindsay Giesen. We talked about the importance of trying to create a mental disconnect between work and life. If work is your life, this does not apply to you. However, if you're in a situation where work is making you unhappy, it's important to install a kind of mental divide between work-self and real-life-self. When you're at work, you're just focused on doing your thing there. It may royally suck and be frustrating at times, and if you're bored out of your mind give yourself assignments (related to either your actual job or something that interests you) to pass the time and enrich yourself. Thank you Dan for this one. But, once the clock hits 5, or on gChat, or whatever, you're just yourself again. Granted, bad days happen that can carry over, but daily minor frustrations shouldn't spill over and take over your life. Your job isn't paying you overtime to think about how much it sucks when you should be out living life and having fun. Particularly since I've just moved to a new city/coast, why bother thinking about the stupidity of a job and industry I really am completely apathetic towards when I could be out having a great time. Apathy is better than anger, in this situation.

Don't get me wrong. I am not planning on turning into an Wanted-esque office drone who one day tells their boss to go fuck themselves. No no. I know there's something better out there, and I know that I am not in a permanent situation here. If anything, right now I'm grateful that I can pay my bills and am employed while the economy goes down faster than Jenna Jameson. Angry gratitude, let's call it.

So there it is. I'm feeling optimistic about the whole thing. Plus work ends at 2pm PST today, so it's a good time to start.