Suggestions for bored office workers

This is from my help column. I had 2 messages from 2 different people about their disatisfaction over their jobs. One thought she was not getting a job according to her qualifications and another felt that she is in a safe job but that it was boring and she did not like to have a boss and to be bossed around. Interesting issues ! I will update this with my thoughts later but in the meantime I apologise to my non Malay speaking readers because I am pasting part of my answer here in Bahasa Melayu.

This is added on later as promised. On the issue of being unhappy in the workplace, there are a few issues that I can see here.
For one thing, when one is bored or feels unhappy it may mean that one is not using one's talents gifts and skills and , the job is not inline with one's personality.
Bosses , especially those emotionally stupid ones will suppress as much as they can the creativity of their staff and create yes men and yes women , robotic automatons who do not think but just follow orders.
Very few bosses actually empwer their staff and those who do will have happy staff who will feel much fulfilled since they are allowed to use their creativity. The company also ends up better for the creativity of the staff will make for innovations in the company.
As for the present day rat race dog eat dog situation present in most working environments, I really do not have anything to say , only that I hope no readers here are exposed to such working environments where the ones who suffer most are the ones who are the lowest in the hirarchy because the top guy will be under pressure to meet deadlines and he will thus ketok his managers who will ketok the engineers who will ketok the technicians who will then ketok the supervisors all the way down to the lowly operators who will have no one to ketok and may take it out on their children or spouse or get sick !
What if anything can one do about it short of taking off and becoming self employed which is another scary prospect for most people , or another alternative is to sit ( work ) sweetly at home and let somebody else bring in the bread!Mind you being the House Manager is not all too pleasant a job either although it has its extremely rewarding moments .

Having set up the scenario , what can one do about it if one is one of the beleagured office worker? Firstly I would just like to say that some of the greatest spiritual personalities worked in the most menial jobs, many of them were not very well known indeed except in some very special circles . A famous one is Saydina Ali may God be pleased with him. He worked as labourer if and when needed to earn just enough for him and his family. He may not have liked doing hard manual labour but I am sure he did whatever required to the best of his ablity to earn what his family needed. So the first thing I would point to is that work is honorable and fairly and justly earned money is blessed and a blessing to the one whose blood sweat and tears earned it . ( And I hope the people at home appreciate how hard it is to earn it)
Next, We may think we deserve better work but in order to get better work, one better get better skills or skills that are in demand because there is no point thinking you should be getting the salary of a degree holder when the course you took to get your degree is a superflous one that is not in demand or, is too common. Learning a new skill is never a waste of time . I had thought for example , if I had found myself jobless ( ie no demand for doctors cos there are too many around ..will it happen do you think?) that I could probably earn my living as a cook since I am sure I can cook up a feast oh so tasty...I could also probably earn my keep doing translations other stuff which are now merely hobbies. So the next point is learn as many skills and be as flexible and versatile as can be as well as be willing to see oneself in various jobs.
The next point is to take responsibility over decisions made and not put the blame on the boss, the environment your parents etc. A victim mentality means we cannot change things because the fault lies with others . On the other hand making an assessment of what we can do about it and owning that whatever situation we find ourselves in is our own doing means we can change what we are doing and the outcome would also change.
And last but not least is something that is so basic and simple but seldom done: Count our blessings and be grateful for what we have . So many others have no jobs or are in some ways in worse situations..I know it is a boring answer but there you go!
I remember one day as I was struggling into my husband's old black mercedes ( because my hands were full of bags , the newspaper, a file, my drinking water etc) well not extremely old, about 10 years old..and upon going in wrinkled up my nose at the stale smell of the car , what with somebody spilling something like juice in it a few days back..I saw a boy on a motorbike looking at me as I drove off....and I thought to myself , he probably thinks how wonderful to own a mercedes such as I was driving...and there I was grumbling it is too big , too smelly etc and etc...so I stopped for a moment to send a prayer ..Dear Lord, Ya Rabb, I thank you much for being able to afford this car ...and to be comfortably driving in it safe from the rain and safe from the hot sun , safe from clumsy motorists who drive into motobikers .

Ameen....

Ini adalah saranan saya bagi semua pekerja yang rasakan apa yang dia sedang lakukan adalah boring. Saya sendiri telah menghadapi perasaan yang sama dan nasihat yang saya berikan ini adalah langkah-langkah yang saya sendiri lalui untuk selesaikan masaalah saya.
1. Ambil tanggung jawab atas keadaan sekarang dan terima dia se-adanya sebab ramai lagi yang dalam situasi yang lebih teruk: Ini perlukan perubahan sikap dan perubahannya adalah kita redha ketetapan Allah keatas diri kita sekarang. Saya bincang perubahan sikap dengan lebih terperinci di bawah ini.

2. Amalkan doa
Allahuma inni a'uzubika minal hammi wal hazan
Ya Allah lindungi laa aku dari menyesalkan perkara yang lepas dan merisaukan perkara yang akan datang .

3. Kira semua nikmat Allah swt telah berikan kepada anda sekarang dan ucap syukur banyak banyak mudah mudahan dengan sikap syukur dan redha Allah swt akan memberikan lagi rezeki melimpah limpah

4.Di samping redha dan terima keadaan,kita pertingkatkan diri kita supaya boleh mengubah keadaan dan mendapat kerjaya yang lebih sesuai dengan naluri dan kecederungan kita sendiri.


Apa yang perlu berubah dalam diri anda?
Sikap tidak berpuas hati kepada sikap mensyukuri nikmat
Sikap merasakan diri terlalu tinggi untuk jawatan yang ada kepada sikap meningkatkan diri untuk meningkatkan mutu kerja..sebagai peringatan, kelayakkan atas kertas tidak sama dengan kemampuan yang ada pada kita.
Sikap membuang masa dengan rasa boring/kesihan diri /mengangis dan meratap kepada sikap menggunakan masa untuk berbuat perkara yang berguna.
Sikap menyalahkan keadaan dan juga menyalahkan majikan, ibu bapa dan lain lain kepada sikap bertanggung jawab atas segala yang berlaku pada diri sebagai rentetan dari keputusan dan juga pemikiran diri kita sendiri yang mampu di ubah, ie dari mentaliti mangsa kepada mentaliti pemerkasaan. Inilah ertinya * freedom of choice* yang Allah swt telah berikan kepada manusia dan inilah ertinya bahawa segala kebaikkan datang dari Allah dan segalah keburukkan adalah perbuatan kita sendir sama ada kita sedar atau kita tidak sedar. Dengan kita mengambil langkah pemerkasaan ini, kita tidak lagi merasakan bahawa kita terpaksa buat itu dan ini. Jika keputusan kita adalah untuk tidak mencari kerja lain maka itu keputusan kita yang kita perlu senangi dan buatlah sebaik yang boleh.

Akhirkata: Setiap pekerjaan yang mencari rezeki yang halal ada dalamnya keberkatan dan jika kita buat sebaik yang boleh dalam menjalankan amanah dalam kerja , sikap postif kita akan buka jalan kepada yang lebih cocok dan baik untuk kita.