| Lik-See's website |
| Links: (websites I enjoy, nothing really to do with the monthly topics) |
| http://www.howstuffworks.com/ This is an interesting website where you can have fun educating yourself�good website too if you have absolutely nothing to do but want to learn something useful. |
| http://www.bahiker.com/ Excellent website about where to hike around the San Francisco Bay Area. Great description of trails and plenty of pictures. |
| If you have any comments, suggestions, thoughts, etc. about this website, please email me at [email protected] Thank you! |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Good website to news events in different parts of the world. |
| I hope you are doing well so far in May. This month's topic is the stressful and boring effects of work, namely what makes it hard for some of us to enjoy our work or feel motivated about working. Lik-See, 05-09-04 Last month, I touched on the internal motivation to work, identifying the reasons why we can enjoy work - whatever we do in our career or vocation. However, the hard reality is that some if not many of us don't enjoy our work. Why is that? Or what is the biggest reason that you hate your work or job? Maybe it's not work itself that's bad but the stressful and boring work conditions and situations that make it hard. There are many hard aspects about work - from politics, mismanagement, long hours, lack of work to keep you busy to flat-out being laid off or umemployed. But there must be something deeper to why these things contribute so much to making us feel so demoralized about the very thing we spend so much of our waking hours doing: 1) When work is stressful: it wears on you - unfortunately anything in life you enjoy becomes unenjoyable when it's surrounded by often very trying difficulties - such as your mico-manager of a boss unloading a bunch of work on you while blaming you for a mistake he or she made. We love comfort, a please-don't-let-the-boat-of-my-life-be-rocked expectation, pain avoidance hope and belief that we can skate through life unscathed. But that is rarely the case, particularly with the chronic difficulties that's hard to avoid at a place you spend at least 8 hours of your life at every weekday. Why does life have to be so hard? 2) When work is boring: some of us don't get too stressed - it's just the opposite extreme that's a problem. For those who are in this situation, a lack of sufficient work, whether it's a lifeless job or not even having a job, contributes much to restlesness and dissatisfaction. No matter how much we say we want to have never-ending vacations and be able to sleep in, work is a tangible outlet to do and accomplish something useful. I would say all of us desire this at some level so we don't feel like we're letting life go by as if what we do doesn't matter. What am I doing with my life so that it matters? |
| WHY THIS WEBSITE EXISTS: To share and stimulate thought and insight on life issues we can relate to. |
| Quotes: There is a vast world of work out there in this country, where at least 111 million people are employed in this country alone - many of whom are bored out of their minds. All day long. -- Richard Nelson Bolles The purpose of quotes on this website is to provoke thought and may or may not be an endorsement of the person being quoted and his or her beliefs. |
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| Question of the month: What makes work the least enjoyable for you? a) stressful situations such as friction with co-workers, mismanagement, work load, etc. b) boredom- I feel I have a dead-end job that doesn't challenge me or utilize my skills well. c) the structure of work itself: that I have to spend so much time and energy every day doing something that's not related to my personal interests and hobbies. d) it's the work itself. I don't care what you say - I just hate to work! e) other |
| General Note: just to let you know, I update this website with a new topic around the beginning of each month. |
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| LSC's basement: For this month, here's another one of my favorites - a country I would really like to visit someday is Bhutan. |
| http://www.terragalleria.com NEW LINK! This is an excellent website which has beautiful pictures of different places in the world. |
| You know you can't stand your work when: 1) you can't wait until the weekend comes and it's only Monday morning. 2) you always take breaks and leave work on the dot. 3) you've taken days off mid-week just to get away from your work. 4) you feel like the day is wasted when the weather's nice and you're stuck in the office. 5) the highlight of your work week is the new restaurant you tried during one of your lunch breaks. 6) you hate it when your co-workers talk about work during lunch. 7) you look back at the year and feel the most exciting thing that has happened at work is when they hired the new person. 8) you can relate too much to "Dilbert". 9) you feel like quitting your job and taking time off...even without sufficient money saved up. 10) you never smile at work. |
| ARCHIVES: for website topics from previous months, click here. |
| ANTI-PET PEEVES: For a growing list of things I really like, click here. |
| I read somewhere an interesting statement about a mental health study done on those who were unemployed. It sort of stuck with me: "The study found that those employed youngsters who were dissatisfied with their jobs were indistinguishable in terms of mental health scores from the unemployed youngsters." Probably one of these days, I'd like touch more on this aspect of dealing with those don't work or don't feel like they're working or doing much. LSC |
| Work for some: not stressful just boring * |
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| Note: *picture above is taken from BBC News website. |