How to beat the on-the-job blues

Dear Bob …

I’m not sure how to even ask a question out of this. Maybe you can help me figure out what I want to know.

[ Also on InfoWorld: For dealing with the modern workforce, Bob has ideas on how a manager can guide a contractor’s career development | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ]

My problem: Is it a problem? Every day is a struggle to get out of bed and go to work. It makes my guts churn. Why? I don’t know.

The person I report to might not be the most inspiring leader I’ve ever encountered, but she’s far from the worst. She treats people with respect, we know what we’re supposed to do and why it matters, she doesn’t burn us out, and she doesn’t play a lot of games. She certainly isn’t the problem.

The people I work with are pleasant enough: no bullies, no serious whiners, no awful slackers. We get the job done. I don’t have any close friends at the office; on the other hand I don’t actively disklike any of my coworkers either, and so far as I can tell the feelings are mutual.

The work itself isn’t terribly interesting. It isn’t dully repetitious either. It’s just work and we all do it pretty well.

That’s my life: I get up in the morning, force myself to go to work, and do my job until it’s time to go home. I get my paycheck, use it to go to the movies or watch something from Netflix, eat decent food, read books, play golf, watch television … then rinse and repeat.

Do you see a problem? I don’t see a problem. And yet, every morning when I get out of bed my guts churn.

Any thoughts?

– Struggling

Dear Struggling …

Here’s my thought: You’re existing, but you aren’t living. Your reaction to your job is just a symptom.

This is a bit out of my line — we’re straying into life-purpose inspirational territory, which I generally leave to clergy, psychologists, and purveyors of self-help books. But you did ask, and far be it from me to duck the challenge. And so …

Here’s my question of you: What is it that you do that creates value for other people? That helps people who need help? That makes you feel good about yourself because you’ve done something worth feeling good about?

Find a nonprofit in your area that needs volunteers and does something for your community you’d take pride being part of. Then volunteer — and be the sort of volunteer who pitches in instead of demanding ego gratification. Whether you find yourself building houses with Habitat for Humanity, serving food at a shelter, reading childrens’ books to orphans, or tutoring and otherwise helping as a Big Brother, I’m pretty sure getting involved in something like this will change your whole outlook.

If you aren’t the volunteering type, check out the sort of vacation that has you working on an archeological dig, or just check out vacations to locations a bit more exotic than a Las Vegas weekend. Maybe choose a language first, learn it (maybe even using a computer program), and visit a country where you’ll have to speak it. Travel does broaden the mind; learning to speak someone else’s language expands it more.

Don’t like travel? Enroll in a class that teaches you an entirely useless subject you find interesting anyway. You don’t have to earn money reading Renaissance French poets to find reading and making sense of Renaissance French poetry rewarding. Challenge your mind — it needs more exercise than you’re giving it.

Your job? It will still be there, helping you fund your new lifestyle. You might even find it rewarding, once you’ve stretched yourself a bit in some other directions.

– Bob

This story, “How to beat the on-the-job blues,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bob Lewis’s Advice Line blog on InfoWorld.com.