BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

If You Hate Your Job, Read This

This article is more than 8 years old.

When I was a kid there was a popular promotion used by supermarket chains when they were opening a new location. They would hold a drawing and some lucky shopper would win a timed shopping spree in the new supermarket.

The  lucky winner would get an empty shopping cart and the chance to race around the aisles when the store was empty of shoppers, grabbing whatever they wanted for free and throwing it into their cart.

I used to lie in bed and dream about what I'd grab off the shelves if I won a shopping spree myself. I would get an Easy Bake Oven and Barbie's Dream House for myself and maybe some Rock-em Sock-em Robots for my brothers. I never won a prize like that of course but it was fun to think about it.

If you hate your job, you might drag into the office or your workplace every day dreading it and hating your life, but there's a lot of good stuff that you can get out of a bad job during your remaining time there.

You can treat your remaining time in the lousy job like your chance to dash through the supermarket aisles grabbing the best stuff to take with you.

Which one of us plans to retire from the job we're in? Almost nobody reading this column is currently working in the job he or she will retire from. As my 89-year-old dad says, "Everything is temporary if you wait long enough."

You can grab a lot of good stuff from a horrible job, and focusing on how the job will help you long after you've left it is a fantastic way to reframe a bad situation.

Here are some of the excellent things a bad job can give you:

Dragon-Slaying Stories

A Dragon-Slaying Story is a triumphant tale about a time when you came, saw and conquered something on the job. You can tell Dragon-Slaying Stories in your Human-Voiced Resume and in your LinkedIn profile, too. The Dragon-Slaying Stories you tell on job interviews may well get you into your next job.

The great thing about Dragon-Slaying Stories is that they don't have to fall into your formal job description. If you did it, you'll claim it forever! If your toadish manager didn't want you to do whatever you did -- too bad! Once you did it, it's yours.

It doesn't matter whether anybody at your current job appreciated what you did when you earned your Dragon-Slaying-Storytelling rights. It doesn't even matter whether they noticed! It's your story forever, now!

Contacts

An interesting thing about toxic workplaces is that your fellow prisoners may help you and give you moral support in your quest to bust out, and you can do the same for them. You can provide references for one another.

Customers, vendors and other partners, like bankers, can do the same thing. You don't have to say "I hate this horrible place and I'm trying to get out, so will you be my reference?" You can simply say "Jane, I hope you don't mind if I share something non-business-related with you."

"Not at all," Jane is likely to say. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm exploring some other professional opportunities, and I wondered whether you'd be comfortable providing a reference for me," you'll say.

If your spidey sense is working, Jane will be delighted to be a reference-giver and flattered that you took her into your confidence.

Continuity On Your Path

You know that your job is soul-crushing, but no one else does. Employed people forget that being able to say "I've learned a ton at Acme Explosives, but it's time for me to move on" is music to a hiring manager's ears. They love to hire forward-looking, path-oriented people.

You don't have to say (and I don't want you to say!) "My job is a hell hole and every minute there is torture." That's your business and no one else's.

One of the best things a bad job gives you is credibility that you wouldn't have on your job search if you'd spent those unhappy years or months as a full-time job-seeker.

If we are honest, you did learn some things at the lousy job, even if they mostly fall into the category "Circumstances I never want to find myself in again." As you get your job search up and running, you'll be more attuned to the culture of the companies you're interviewing with.

Once a particular lousy-job snake bites you, you won't get bitten by the same snake again. As you get your job search underway, you'll notice that your energy is shifting.

You're focusing on the future, on networking and sending out Pain Letters and spotting Business Pain in the environment around you. The unpleasantness at work won't change but it won't bother you as much.

Years from now you'll say "Man, did I hate that job!" and it will be true, but you'll have grown muscles that you wouldn't have otherwise.

You'll laugh and say "At least my time at that job reminded me that I get to choose how to spend my precious time and energy. That's one thing I won't forget!"