Working Wounded: Losing Your Passion

Dec. 16, 2005 — -- DEAR WOUNDED: I'm starting to notice that I'm having trouble waking up in the morning to go to work. I've never had this problem before. What do you do when the passion disappears?

ANSWER: Your e-mail reminded me of a supermarket checker in Oakland, Calif. This checker was so popular that people would line up for her even though other checkers were available. Why? She'd greet you warmly, offer treats to dogs or kids, give you recipes to cook the items you'd just bought, etc. She turned a forgettable job into something memorable.

Her passion for customers was infectious. It's no different where you work -- we can all bring more passion to our jobs. I've listed some strategies to do this below. For more, check out Lawler and Kang's book "Passion at Work" (Prentice Hall, 2005).

Is your attitude the source of the problem? I've personally responded to more than 50,000 e-mails from bosses and employees. I can't begin to tell you how many e-mails begin by pointing the finger at bosses, co-workers, etc. As my mom used to say, when you point a finger at someone else, four point back at you. Just as a great attitude can spread at work, so can a bad one. So take a hard look in the mirror to see whether you are one of those people who lets all the air out of everyone else's tires at work.

Are there people at work who are destroying your passion? Have you ever had a friend whom you liked, but who was able to suck the life right out of you? I've known those kinds of people, and I've found that I can't be around excessively negative people. Sometimes you can put some space between you and these negative people, other times you just have to get the heck out of there.

Are your expectations dragging you down? High expectations can challenge us to reach higher than we thought we could reach. At the same time they can also set an unreachable standard. So take a look at your expectations to see whether you are losing your passion because you expect too much from your co-workers, bosses and the rest of your company.

Are non-work-related things the problem? Things like eating poorly, not exercising and not getting enough sleep can turn even a great job into a prison cell.

Are you in the wrong profession, company, office, etc.? There is such a thing as a bad fit. Sometimes we need to explore a new line of work, a new company, or just get away from a particular group of employees or a boss. I just got a letter from someone this morning who felt trapped with a bad boss and then left and realized that there were great bosses out there -- you've just got to find them.

Just as that supermarket checker turned her job into something special, you can use the tips above to avoid checking out of your job and to get reunited with your passion.

We'd like to hear your strategy for finding your passion at work. I'll give an autographed copy of "Working Wounded: Advice that adds insight to injury" (Warner, 2000) to the best submission. Send your entry, name and address via: http://workingwounded.com or via e-mail: bob@workingwounded.com. Entries must be received by Wednesday, Dec. 21.

Here are the results from a recent workingwounded.com/ABCNews.com online ballot:

Our winning strategy for dealing with an ultimatum comes from S.W. in Cyberspace:

"Creating a sense of urgency is a tried-and-true sales tactic. Sometimes it is the vendor trying to book some revenue before the end of a period, often it's just a negotiating tactic to get you to buy. My strategy for dealing with it if I know it's just a naked grab for an order (usually if it's an end of quarter thing they tell us): 'I'm not prepared to buy it now, but I am by [insert date here]. Can you extend your price to this day, or should we take care of it with an RFQ [request for quotations]?'"

Bob Rosner is a best-selling author, speaker and internationally syndicated columnist. His newest best seller, "Gray Matters: The Workplace Survival Guide" (Wiley, 2004), is a business comic book that trades cynicism for solutions. Ask Bob a question: bob@workingwounded.com or http://graymattersbook.com.

This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.