Eliminating misery at work

This is the subject of one of my rants. We spend more of our adult lives working than anything else. What possible justification is there for work to be miserable – or to make us miserable?

I believe that we all have the right to enjoy work. This isn’t an unreasonable expectation. Enjoying work may be much easier to recognise and achieve for someone like me, in a job that gives me great freedom of operation, with a wide range of creative things to do. I’m quite prepared to acknowledge that some tasks are dull and mundane, and some are downright unpleasant. It is still possible for people to enjoy many aspects of their work: their workplaces; the company of their co-workers; the obvious respect that is accorded them; the freedom of operation and self-determination they are given.

The most common reason for people to feel miserable at work is poor management (managers either wrongly selected for the job or poorly trained). This is entirely independent of the type of business or the type of work.

If business leaders were to decide that misery was unacceptable in their workplaces, we could begin to strip away the problems, and create workplaces bursting with enjoyment.