Do you make decent money, get your work done, and
feel at a loss to pinpoint anything really wrong with your job-but
still dread going to work each day? If it's not as simple as a tyrant
boss, meager wages, or long days in the salt mine, how can you explain
your stress and frustration with your job?
Simple. Your job may
just be a terrible misfit for your personality type. When looking at
job satisfaction, the common factors we've been taught to value in our
career-salary, benefits, stability-become relatively unimportant
compared to the fundamental fit between our personality type and our
work. Doing work that satisfies your basic needs and desires can be
inspiring and motivating! Unfortunately, doing work that runs contrary
to your basic personality preferences can cause stress,
dissatisfaction, and burnout.
To help you evaluate whether your
personality type may be a poor fit for your job, I've collected some
common complaints I hear from dissatisfied professionals in my career
consulting practice. In order to understand my clients' needs, desires,
and motivations, I work with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the
world's most common personality assessment. This is a system based on
four basic personality scales, or preferences, which describe how you
make decisions, approach the world, and process information.
The
first personality scale, Extroversion/Introversion, describes where you
focus your attention and get your energy. Extroverts are externally
focused, and get energy from interacting with others. Introverts are
internally focused, and get their energy from solitary thought, quiet
activity, and reflection. A poor match in this area may cause you to
feel drained after a day at work, and often results in complaints like:
I'm stuck alone in my office, and feel isolated and unstimulated.
Extroverts
are energized, stimulated, and motivated by other people. They like
working on teams, meeting with others, and bouncing ideas off their
colleagues. They tend to enjoy giving presentations, expressing their
ideas, and interacting with lots of other people during the day.
Extroverts who must spend long periods working alone tend to feel bored
and unmotivated. Because Extroverts tend to do their best work with
other people, independent projects can be frustrating and dull for
them, and they may get stymied if they're not allowed to collaborate.
I'm constantly put on the spot to speak, and I can't get a moment's peace.
Introverts,
on the other hand, are most focused and productive when they have a
quiet workplace where they can isolate themselves from others to
concentrate. Introverts tend to prefer working on a project
independently rather than on a team, and usually dislike having to
present information to others, especially if they're not given adequate
time to prepare. Introverts usually feel drained by their work when it
requires lots of interaction with many people during the day, constant
meetings, or working in a noisy or busy environment.
The second
scale, Sensing/Intuition, describes how you gather and process
information. Sensors tend to be concrete, detail-oriented, and firmly
rooted in reality. Intuitives tend to be abstract and oriented to
connections, possibilities, and meaning. Your preference on this scale
determines to a great extent what kind of work you will enjoy, and what
sort of work will drive you crazy:
I have to constantly learn
new things on the job, and I never get a chance to really master a
skill. -OR- I don't know what I'm working for, since I can't see
tangible results for my efforts.
Sensors prefer to use
trusted skills on the job. They prefer work that they can learn to do
well, and like to repeatedly use skills that they feel they've
mastered. A job with constantly changing requirements or
responsibilities, or one where they must constantly acquire new
knowledge or skills, is often stressful to Sensors. Sensors also prefer
work where their efforts result in tangible or observable results-a
newly built house, a healed patient, an organized file. Work where
they're forced to spend too much time in the realm of ideas and
possibilities, without seeing a real result, feels pointless and
ungratifying to Sensors.
I spend my time endlessly repeating the same tedious, mundane tasks-I never get to learn new things!
In
contrast, Intuitive types prefer work where they can constantly pursue
new information and skills, and are often bored by a task once they've
mastered it. Doing the same thing over and over is deadly for
Intuitives, and they will often try to cope with repetitive tasks by
inventing new ways to complete them. Intuitives become particularly
stressed in jobs where they have little opportunity for creativity or
innovation. Intuitives can be described as designers, rather than
builders, because they often enjoy coming up with an idea but have no
interest in personally putting it together. Because Intuitives tend to
think of things in a global way, work that requires close attention to
detail is irritating to them. They prefer to focus on the concepts,
meanings, and possibilities, rather than the mundane details.
The
next scale, Thinking/Feeling, describes how you like to make decisions.
Thinkers prefer logical, reasonable decisions that make objective
sense. Feelers prefer decisions that concur with their personal values
and consider the emotions of the people involved. Thinkers and Feelers
tend to choose very different occupations, and when in the wrong
occupation become frustrated in some common ways:
Coworkers bring their personal problems to work, and I have to consider people's emotions even when they're not being logical.
Thinkers
like a work environment where decisions are made logically,
consequences are reasoned out, and objective analysis rules. They also
prefer to work with colleagues who they view as reasonable,
intelligent, and competent. Thinkers will become frustrated if they are
pressured to comply with decisions or plans that don't make sense to
them in the interest of preventing hurt feelings or avoiding conflict.
Powerful office politics, needy coworkers, and an over-emphasis on
satisfying everyone are all very frustrating for Thinkers.
My work is all about the bottom line, and I am forced to ignore my personal values.
Feelers,
on the other hand, prefer work that aligns with their values. More
likely to choose work in education, counseling, and health care,
Feelers need to believe in the positive impact of their work in order
to feel satisfied with what they're doing. Business environments where
the focus is strictly on the bottom line are unmotivating to Feeling
types. Feelers also value a friendly, caring workplace and often dread
working with colleagues who are critical, contentious, or unsupportive.
Typically motivated to achieve consensus and harmony, Feelers may burn
out trying to please others who are not similarly accomodating.
The
final scale, Judging/Perceiving, refers to how you prefer to organize
your life and has a fundamental impact on the type of work environment
that fits you best. Judgers prefer an organized and structured way of
life, whereas Perceivers prefer to keep things spontaneous and
open-ended. A poor fit in this area can lead to complaints like:
This place is totally disorganized-I never know what the plan is, and nobody seems to be in charge.
Judgers
like a workplace where the expectations and hierarchy are clear. They
prefer to know how and when things will be done, and what the
procedures are for doing them. For this reason, they often adapt well
to working for large, established companies or government
organizations. They will become stressed if they are in a work
environment where it is unclear who is in charge, how responsibilities
are distributed, and how their performance will be evaluated. Judgers
also like to plan projects in detail and do things in an orderly and
methodical way, and dislike surprises and interruptions. If surprises
and changes are constantly derailing their neatly ordered plans, they
will quickly become frustrated.
I'm constantly tied up in bureaucracy, red tape, and hierarchy. I have no freedom to do things as I see fit.
Perceivers,
in contrast, prefer an open-ended, casual, and unstructured workplace.
They prefer to pick up projects as inspiration strikes them, and often
work in a pressure-prompted fashion to complete things at the last
minute. Having to plan or schedule their work in detail, particularly
over the long term, is constraining to Perceivers. Perceivers also like
to be free to invent new solutions and respond to changing
circumstances, and feel stifled by standard procedures, rules, and
bureaucracy. Most comfortable with uncertainty and flexibility,
Perceivers feel limited by a workplace that imposes too much structure.
If
you recognized yourself in these descriptions, your first step to
positive change is to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® assessment
to accurately determine your personality type. You'll want to work with
a competent practitioner who can help you to understand how your
personality type affects your job satisfaction, and how you can
implement career changes to improve your experience at work. Although
it may seem daunting to start thinking about a career change, rest
assured. There is a job out there that you'll be excited to go to every
day, and becoming informed about your own personality is the first step
in discovering it.
http://ezinearticles.com/?8-Reasons-You-Hate-Your-Job---Stress,-Burnout-and-Your-Myers-Briggs-Personality-Type&id=990218
