Survival in an Unhappy Work Environment

When someone doesn't like his or her job, going to work every day can be a real challenge I suppose. The problem might be with poor office management, staff politics, not meeting what you expect to achieve, that you constantly feel stretched to the breaking point, or that you are resentful about some actions the senior management had just announced. Or, the whole environment may just feel unpleasant for him or her. He or she might need to stay in the present job because it provides health benefits, or maybe they're only staying while looking for another position. Whatever the reasons for being unhappy, they need to maintain their professionalism and prevent a bad attitude from sabotaging themselves.


What the Professionals Say

Some of you need to turn towards that feeling of unhappiness, experience it more thorough and find out deeper into the issues, and not try to solve things too quickly. It is suggest to observe the feelings and not expecting anything. You may just find yourself at a frontier, considering what you're going to do next.

Similarly, an associate professor who specializes in human resources management and organizational behavior, agrees that looking within is the first step. That may be hard for some people to hear, because while it's true that sometimes people just don't match well with their jobs, employees tend to rationalize their job dissatisfaction rather than consider that they may be part of the problem. But if you are part of the problem, you may be part of the solution, too.

A workplace expert advises that if you're unhappy, see if you can upgrade your contribution to the company, or find a way to be more creative about your job. She once performed very dull work in a book bindery but avoided becoming negative about the job by finding a way to make it less boring. No work is uninteresting if you can think how to do it differently.

That's not to say unhappy workers don't have valid complaints. One thing you don't want to do, however, is let your feelings boil over at work.

Signs That You Need to Take Action

Perhaps you've heard of someone who was so unhappy he quit on the spot or blew up at a boss. Losing control at work helps no one and may have repercussions in both your current job and in the future — you never know when you'll work with one of your current colleagues again.

Indications that you need to address your emotions may be physical or behavioral. The signs include feeling distracted, sluggish, angry or irritable, not sleeping well or sleeping excessively, relying on alcohol or food to comfort yourself, and withdrawing from friends and activities. All may indicate underlying depression or anxiety, which you shouldn't ignore.

If you feel you have nowhere to turn, are about to burst, or are depressed, one option is to seek out your company's counselor, if it has one.

There are also things you can try to change in your approach to your job. Consider these solutions for surviving and even thriving in a job that's less than optimal:

-Face the situation. During a recession or slow recovery, people at all levels experience the pain and depression. Such an economic climate makes it more difficult to leave a job, but it doesn't mean you should feel stuck. Accept that this job is not where you want to be, even if you can't make a change today. But begin taking steps to change things. Practice radical acceptance, you have more control over how you think than you realize. Understand what you're feeling, and that if you show up to work reluctantly, it will affect your performance.

-Choose a plan. Be proactive, work with trusted friends and office members about your ideas. If there's something you'd like to change, decide whether your management is approachable and if so, the best tactics to use. If you have suggestions, discuss how they will improve your performance as well as others.

You could also try learning a new skill. At the very least, it may help you prepare for another job should you decided later to progress further elsewhere. It can also lift your spirits and lead to new possibilities at your current job. Finally, consider looking outside your job for fulfillment. Having an outside interest or two gives you another outlet and an activity to look forward to, if that is finally what you choose to be.

-Find the "positives". Make a list of the good points about your job, you may be thankful to have healthcare and other benefits, you may like your coworkers. Or you enjoy the opportunity for travel or the mentoring you do. Listing what you do like about your job will help shift your perception and keep you from feeling so unhappy and felt trapped. If you don't take responsibility, it will hurt your performance, erode your satisfaction further, and make your time at the job worse.

Remember the Dos’ and Don’ts

Do: Differentiate between what you can change and what you can't. Take responsibility for making a change. Focus on making the best of a bad situation.
Don't: Assume nothing will ever change. Allow negative thoughts to rule you. Go it alone.
Find Satisfaction in Some Part of Your Job, Find Satisfaction Outside of Work. Whatever you do, be happy and positive and do not whine like a baby !

Management to learn from Toyota's Fallout

Toyota fast move of establishing factories in five U.S. states in the late 1980s, about few years ago it began ramping up production and making big expansion plans as a way to meet soaring demand and, ultimately gotten the title of world’s largest automaker pushing GM from it’s title holder. Was this hasty ambition led Toyota to have some problem coordinating just-in-time arrivals from its suppliers and maintaining deep technical ties with those suppliers??


This could only be part of the story and there could be more to it’s flaw in it's manufacturing management and control. Let's look at some areas :

Bureaucracy

The lines of control of Toyota’s U.S. operations were murky. During most of Toyota’s expansion into America, the company’s California-based sales division and its Kentucky-based manufacturing division reported back to Japan, independent of each other. For a few years, the company’s top-ranking U.S. exec, James E. Press, was able to establish Toyota Motor North America in New York as the de facto headquarters in charge of all U.S. operations. He even rose to become the only American on Toyota’s board of directors in Japan. But Press quit in 2007 to join Chrysler and he was replaced by a series of Japanese executives with less clout. With Press’ departure, Toyota lost its key bridge between management in Japan and various U.S. constituencies — and its ability to respond rapidly when crises hit.

Too Confident

Another underlying problem is cultural. Toyota is a secretive and non-communicative organization. American insiders joke that working for the company is like working for the Central Intelligence Agency, where information is shared only on a “need to know” basis, confides one American employee. And long a scrappy underdog to General Motors and Ford Motor, Toyota developed a sense of cockiness in the past two or three years as it began to surpass its American rivals in global sales. The company did not need rebates to sell its vehicles. Consumer Reports gave the brand high praise. Toyota did not believe it needed a strong public relations effort. The company thus failed to recognize that the pressures on the No. 1 player in any market are far more intense than the pressures on No. 2 and No. 3.

Poor Management

For years, the company has been led by a series of world-class professional managers. Then last summer, Akio Toyoda, 53, grandson of the company’s founder, took charge as chief executive and some insiders did not think he was ready, say some auto industry watchers in Japan. They were right. When he took the job, Toyoda told the world that he would practice “genchi genbutsu,” which translates roughly as “management by walking around” or “going to where the problem is.” But when the safety flap came to light, he remained silent and even attended the annual gathering of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland. American crisis response experts were flabbergasted. “What is he doing in Davos anyway?” Paul A. Argenti, a professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth’s business school was quoted as saying in The New York Times. “If you’ve got a crisis of this magnitude, you get on a plane and you go to the scene of the problem.” Instead, day-to-day management of the controversy was delegated to James E. Lenz III, head of Toyota Motor Sales.

Fallout

Toyota’s problem-solving mechanism clearly broke down. The company revealed as much in the series of explanations it released. Initially, Toyota announced the floor mats were the problem. Then it was the gas pedals, which were made by an Indiana-based supplier and thus limited the problem only to U.S.-made cars. But that story didn’t hold up because of a well-publicized case involving a Lexus in California in which four people died — and that vehicle was made in Japan. Now it seems the underlying problem involves the software and the computerized controls governing acceleration and braking in many Toyota vehicles. No one knows for sure but this series of problems could take months to reformulate.

Toyota used to have a reputation for quickly correcting mistakes. It first introduced a vehicle nicknamed the Toyopet in the U.S. in 1957. It was laughed out of the market because of its ungainly design and small size. But by 1959, Toyota was back and it executed flawlessly in the United States for 50 years, even introducing the luxury Lexus brand, which beat Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac in total sales.

Now it faces class-action lawsuits and intense scrutiny from Congress and officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The tone is reminiscent of the Big Tobacco hearings more than a decade ago: What did Toyota know and when did it know it? There’s no question that Toyota’s reputation has been badly damaged. The only question now is how long it will take to recover.

I think some of these management fall-out could happen to any big organization in any kind of manufacturing businesses, be it Rig building, Tall architectural building design and construction, medical industries, filming industry, etc… The lesson to all high ranking staffs, is to be on their toe and corporate governance is one key to maintaining the integrity and well-being of the business and let it be a wake-up call to all ( as Jack, the director, recently mentioned on his own fall-out, though it was not manufacturing related but "woman" was the cause ). Let’s not be cocky no matter how successful your trade or business is ! !

CEOs are better-off with MBA ?

Remember Jeff Skilling of Enron? He had an MBA, while Bill Gates and Steve Jobs didn't even finish college. Probably with the recent financial crisis on banks,etc, there was also side-impact on MBA programs and few of these programs have received criticism and whether the graduates know what to look out for or just follow by the book. According to critics, they are guilty of many overlooked lapses: teaching the wrong financial models, riding roughshod over risk management, sidestepping business ethics, overheating the managerial job market, hiding from the real world. As a result, so the script goes, we have a generation of business leaders tainted by greed and short-term thinking.


What impact has an MBA on a CEO's overall position in the ranking. Findings are :

While information about educational credentials wasn't in the public domain for all countries, CEOs' academic records were widely available in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Fewer than one-third of the CEOs of four countries had an MBA. So let's be clear certainly we do not say it's a necessity for getting the top job. But it could still be sufficient to improve performance.

As it turns out, seems there is a definite correlation between holding an MBA and achieving high performance as a CEO over the long term. CEOs with an MBA ranked on average a full 40 places higher than those without.

Those who had become CEO before the age of 50. The effect of an MBA was even more significant for this group. The advantage went up from 40 places to 100. Time and again, the MBA advantage persisted.

The Potent MBA Ingredient

The big question is, why? The simple answer is that something in the MBA curriculum or experience helps a CEO add value, particularly if that executive has comparatively few years of business experience. But what exactly is this magic MBA ingredient? For some graduates, an MBA simply gives them better skills. It can add right-brain creativity and warmth to left-brain logic and financial acumen. Or vice versa. It can even help get the hard and soft skills working together. For others, an MBA is a badge of excellence. After all, top schools only accept a chosen few. And most top companies look among the elite for their leaders.

An MBA may also provide a network of other rising stars. This network offers business contacts, opportunities, and priceless advice. And it lasts for an entire career.

Those who choose to do an MBA, are opting to improve themselves. Their openness to ideas and willingness to learn is going to benefit them all the way to the top—and long after they arrive in the executive suite.

An MBA program, or at least a good one, gives just such a perspective, especially if it recruits a globally diverse student body. And here the speculation is backed up by research. An INSEAD colleague, Professor Will Maddux, has carried out experiments demonstrating conclusively that the simple fact of having lived abroad makes people more creative.

The most successful MBA graduates are probably those who manage to mix all of the above ingredients into a potent cocktail of excellence. Perhaps they're the ones who made it into the top 200. Today's MBA students should take note.

*Some of above quoted from Herminia Ibarra, professor of organizational behavior and the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning at INSEAD