Is it OK not to love your job?
Well, as a recruiter, I'd say my MO is to find my candidates a job that they will love. I've always thought that it's important to enjoy our job and therefore career. But I do think now, that loving your job or even thinking, hoping or aspiring to love your job is a generational thing. It is also greatly dependent on the job that you do.
For most people who are in a white collar profession (law, accountancy, consultancy, banking), these people have chosen these professions and have trained over several years with ongoing specific professional qualifications to succeed. It's quite unusual to find someone who just accidentally ends up there. Although ironically I do see a lot of people who do law degrees thinking it's their dream but post graduation they are looking to do something completely different! And in these professions, I wonder if it's accepted that I might not 'love' my job in a sense of day to day joy, but I will earn a very decent salary that will allow me many other things - e.g. a nice house, lots of holidays, work benefits, a pension etc. I might be wrong, I know a couple of Actuaries who are incredibly joyful about what they do - something to do with loving numbers and solving problems.
For those who have found themselves in a vocational career - Pilot, Vet, Doctor, Nurse, Dentist, Teacher, Scientist etc, again these individuals have had a desire to do something quite specific. The same applies that they will have undergone years of training to achieve their dream. I have a Vet friend and a Pilot friend and they both still love what they do - and they are in their fifties. The Vet friend particularly loves their job - even if it does involve Ferret Dentals. These professions are usually reasonably paid and come with work benefits and pensions too. So there is a reason to stick with them, usually to retirement.
But what about our industry? Creative Services, Advertising, Marketing, Digital Marketing, Social Media. Yes, I'm sure people have dreamed of working in this industry - whether they've been inspired to be a great Designer or they thought that Don Draper and Mad Men really was an accurate portrayal of the industry, it looks from the outside to to be a lot more fun than many other industries. We usually talk a lot about 'work hard, play hard' and for many agencies that is still true. We have better flexibility than we ever had in the past but unless you're working for one of the Networks, you're probably not going to have a great list of extra benefits and the sort of pension that those in the public sector sign up to.
Where I said at the start of this that loving your job might be generational is down to quite a lot of anecdotal evidence over the past couple of years. I'm sorry Gen Z but this is another observation that I'm increasingly seen. Gen Z, typically do not want their main salary paying job to be the be all and end all of their life. A high proportion of Gen Z have a side hustle and are the most likely of all the generations to want to start work at 9 and finish at 5 on the dot. They are the least likely generation to take work home with them. I know, lots of generalisations there and I'm genuinely not another person having a 'go'. In fact, I suppose in some ways, I might be quite admiring of this attitude. We all talk about the ideal of work to live not to live to work. Few of us actually achieve it.
But in the past, I think we haven't achieved that goal because we've got so tied up with wanting things. A bigger or better car, a mortgage rather than rental, nicer holidays - we have had big lifestyle goals. I wonder if Gen Z are watching and learning. They're understanding that they might never be able to afford to actually buy a house, they might think that having savings is a unachievable dream, they know that in all likelihood they're going to be working until they are 70. So what to do? Get on the Gravy Train and work hard to try and possibly make it happen - or to accept that those things aren't that important and in fact, they choose to do a day job that probably pays the bills but that the side hustle or outside interests provide the interest, the joy and the love for life. Has Gen Z, in fact, lowered their expectations to the point that they'll do the bare minimum at work - a phenomenon known as Quiet Quitting.
To be fair, it's not only in Gen Z where I am observing change. Increasingly there are Gen Xers who are coping with ageing parents, school-age children and often after 20 odd years in the workplace, they're feeling burned out and knackered. These are the people who've slogged through their twenties and thirties to have it all - they're probably pretty senior in the workplace. These people know that they can't afford to just stop, they've still got mortgages to pay, likely university fees to help out with and they know (particularly in our sector) that unless you've got a great private pension or inheritance, you're likely to working well into your sixties. These people are quite depressed - and I don't use that word lightly. I've several candidates who fit into this bracket who are actively trying to 'downsize' their level in the workplace.
It's not sustainable to cope with the stress of being a senior person in a creative agency or marketing team along with increasing personal and outside work pressures. Too many demands lead to increased stress and within this age-group, people increasingly know someone or a friend of a friend who has become ill or died and it makes us all super aware of our own mortality and to question whether it's all worth it. I predict that 'Downsizing' is going to become even more common in the coming years. Interestingly, I am finding that some agencies are actively recruiting those 'Downsizers' because they are reliable, have proven skills, will not let them down and if something doesn't get done in the office because they do need flexibility for an elderly parent's hospital appointment, they'll catch up later. They are trusted employees. These Downsizers love the industry enough to stay in it doing a role that is less demanding and less stressful but allows them to be a committed and engaged person in the workplace. Admittedly they are taking often hefty drops in salary but in their overall life equation, it's worth it.
I spoke last year to a senior director in a large networked agency. He was on a six figure salary - extremely rare in the regions! He wanted to find a new job, he'd lost his mojo. His current job was safe but he was a bit bored - it was all the same. We talked about lots of different options and I ended up suggesting that the same role anywhere else would ultimately be the same and he'd then have to 'prove himself'' again. Whereas being with his current employer for 20 years meant that he'd accumulated a good pension pot and should redundancy happen, he'd be likely to be treated reasonably well. I advised him that maybe he should get his kicks elsewhere and sit tight. I spoke to him again last week and he is still in the same job, still a bit bored BUT, he has taken up golf and is working on/obsessed now with his handicap and he has a new girlfriend after months of online dating. He's loving his overall life and that's really all any of us can hope for.
Live, Laugh, Love is way too simplistic as a life goal (and I'm really not a fan of the expression). We each individually have to work out what we individually need to make us happy over time. Money is important, pensions are important, contributing to society is important, having friends is important having purpose is important but all of these things are important to different people in differing amounts. We're all the same - trying to work it out as we go along. And that's possibly why those side kicks and outside interests are all the more important. I call it the 'Life Equation' and the balancing of that equation changes over time from our twenties onwards. I don't think anyone has nailed it. The recent news of Chris Hoy's cancer diagnosis and prognosis completely floored me so for now, I'm going to just love being in the here and now.
Written by Fiona Christian, 11th November 2024.