10 things that annoy you about work

Thanks to Ten on Tuesday for prompting this list.


Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun - Colleen C. Barrett

10 things that annoy you about work

1. Having to drive there: I'd love to be able to work from home. Maybe not every day (I like to see my colleagues from time to time), but most days. I'd be more productive, more flexible, happier.
   
2. Responsibility: Either you have it (a little, a lot) or you don't. But when your job description says you have it and your actual job speaks a different reality it's a bit frustrating to say the least.
   
3. The creating part: I am in a job where I don't create anything. I don't participate in the betterment, beatifying, beautification or well-being of the world. I sell. And when I close a deal I feel proud I did it, but it's just business. I didn't create, I didn't make the world a better place.
   
4. The fun part: I guess this goes with number 3. Since I'm not creating anything, most of the time work is just that: work. It can be challenging, exciting, difficult. But fun is something else.
   
5. Team-work: Companies are so big on hashing out every aspect of team-work and we all know by now that Together Everyone Achieves More. Yeah right. The reality looks different. The reality in corporate life is often more like 'an eye for an eye...' and 'everyone fights for themselves'. Silo's are created and team work becomes Time, Energy And Money that noone is willing to spend.
   
6. The flexibility part: To keep work interesting I believe that everyone should change jobs every 5 years. This can of course be within the same company. It seems however, that once they got you into a position where you do what they want, they like to keep you there. If you mention that you'd like to do something else, it is immediately considered that you don't like your job, the company and/or your boss.
   And I'm not even going to tell you what happens if you ask for a more flexible work schedule...
   
7. Us versus Them: There seems to be a continous war between us (the employees) and them (the bosses/employers). We seem to forget that we're all in the same boat. Your boss has a boss who has a boss who has a boss, who has a CEO who has a shareholder... So instead of separating into groups, working together to Achieve More... would make sense no?
   
8. Money: Today's corporate world is not about people anymore. It is all about money. How can we make more money, cut costs, increase our EBITDA? The answer is usually: shift the problem. Create little companies, create different budget, find reasons to cut personnel costs. As long as the stock goes up and the shareholder is happy. What happened to the good old family feeling companies where people were treated as human beings?
   
9. The time we spend there: 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. With a break of short weekends and a few weeks of holidays per year. Work and sleep is where we spent most of our time.
   
10. Work to live: We all have to work to have a decent life, to pay our mortgage, to be able to buy food, to pay for things we need or like. Without work, no money, without money no life. It is the dependency of this circle that annoys me the most.