Second Cup: Like all but 20 percent

twenty percent of your job, you've got a keeper. If you dislike more than twenty percent, you might want to see what else is out there. So I started thinking about this topic recently when someone asked a group of us what we felt was an acceptable ratio of positive to negative feelings about a job. In my younger years, I might have said this ratio should be infinite. That is, you should like absolutely everything about your job and dislike nothing.

As I have gotten older, I have realized that disliking zero is going to be tough to pull off, even in almost ideal situations. We are seldom one hundred percent happy in life. You can be sitting on a tropical beach watching a beautiful sunset while sitting next to the love of your life and still be thinking hmm, my toe itches such as the human condition. You can love your job and still find your weekly meeting with Dave from Accounting tedious, but isn't quitting and neither are you,

and so here we are. I'll also note that sometimes we think the problem is with the job, and it turns out to be more internal. I have followed some situations where people have quit jobs because they just can't trust their coworkers and they're always crashing right before deadlines. Then they find different jobs, and it turns out that you just can't trust these coworkers either, and they are

still always crashing right before deadlines. And maybe, just maybe, these two situations have something very specific and common, namely the person experiencing them that said, you have to balance the reality that nothing is perfect against the truth that, as far as we know, you only get one wild and precious life. As the Mary Oliver would put it, it would be one thing to be miserable day in and day out if you were assigned a job at age twenty and required by law to keep it until retirement.

But if you are listening to this podcast, then you don't live in a society like that. There are millions of jobs out there, many of them are currently open. Within any given industry, there are often lots of companies, some of which have vastly different cultures from others. Within any company, some departments are probably a lot better to work for than other departments, to say nothing of individual managers.

And if you can't find a company or department you like, there are lots of ways to start your own business, many of which don't require a whole lot of capital to begin. In other words, you are not trapped. I know it can be hard to leave. Maybe you earn a lot of money. Sometimes people who earn a lot of money believe that they have to accept certain things about their jobs. But the labor market isn't totally efficient, and so most people haven't completely optimized on any dimension.

That means that even if you earn a lot now, it is always possible that you will be able to find a job you like more that pays more. Too. You might be able to find a job you like more that is more flexible as well. You might be able to find a job that pays more and features nicer colleagues. You just don't know until you look to strike a balance between the truth that nothing is perfect and the truth that no one deserves to be miser I will put twenty percent out there as a target

to aim for. You want to like all but the equivalent of one day a week at your job, as few people actually shunt all the work they don't like to one day. In practice, it will be more like an hour or two a day of stuff you generally prefer not to be doing. You might try keeping track of your time and seeing where the percentage lies currently. If it is over twenty percent, that doesn't mean you

need to quit Jerry Maguire's style. The first thing you should do is see if you can craft your job to spend less time on the things you really don't like. Do they actually have to be done, Maybe they don't, or maybe they can be done with less fanfare than they are currently getting. Maybe the load can be shared or delegated. Maybe things can be done more quickly or more efficiently. You meet with Dave from Accounting for thirty

minutes rather than sixty. You can also try doing more of the stuff you really do like, which at least pushes the proportion down. I am not suggesting extending your hours but if you do have a lot going on, you become less available for tasks that wouldn't be your first choice. People start asking you less, or you find

ways to spend less time on these things. Time is elastic that way, but if the proportion is quite a bit over twenty percent, then it is time to really look at life and figure out what you can do. There is no harm in reaching out to old contacts and set up some coffees. Indeed, people should be doing that regularly, even if they love their jobs, but it might flush out some new opportunities somewhere better. Work doesn't

have to be a negative thing in life. It can be a source of joy at least eighty percent of the time. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four then breakfast Pod. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts

at Iheartme. That before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much should I look forward to staying in touch? Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.