There is a lot of similarity between the needs, preferences and values of healthcare workers and those in other lines of work. Think of LIFE as lifestyle – the ways things are done when you’re a professional – rules and customs that affect not only your professional career, but also your personal lifestyle.
You can get a sense of these rules and customs in the work culture, people, environment, values – even the dress code.
For example: Life working as a CNA in an assisted living facility? Typically that means long shifts. Travel? Usually not needed for a Certified Nursing Assistant in Bakersfield Ca. No time for family? This can be a problem. Working as a phlebotomy technician? You’ll be doing venipunctures all day long! So, there’s a wide variety of work settings when you take a healthcare job in Bakersfield Ca.
What about you? When was the last time you just take some time off from your healthcare job without feeling guilty? Do your coworkers pressure you to work off the clock? Perhaps you have to deal with a sick child at home, yet you feel too guilty to actually call out sick?
You’re perfectly normal. Everybody experiences some degree of career dissatisfaction at one time or another. It’s even predictable. The trick is to put your finger on the cause!
More times than not, career dissatisfaction lurks among the intangibles – culture, values, people, etc. To discover some of the causes of your career dissatisfaction, try this:
- Write down your best guesses about what’s causing your career dissatisfaction – be specific.
Over the next couple of weeks, when you experience dissatisfaction (at home or at work) related to your Bakersfield healthcare career, write it down – be specific. (Ex: had to work all weekend again – I’m missing my kids’ childhoods; values – 3rd time I’m not ethically on board with corporate’s directions; so bored – I could do invoices in my sleep.) When you start repeating the same experiences, you’re done. - Review your notes and summarize your findings to identify the themes of your career dissatisfaction. Compare your findings to your initial guesses – how close were you? Is your career dissatisfaction in the skills, job or LIFE? How does your career line up with the professional and personal factors that are important to you? Do you detect any opportunities for re-alignment?
At the end of day, it’s YOUR LIFE. Remember, part of keeping your stress level down is proper Basic and Preventative Health Care. If you are looking for career satisfaction (and not everybody is, can or must) in your current healthcare job, YOUR career should meet YOUR needs, and not the other way around. By taking a first step to name your career dissatisfaction, you’ve given yourself a lot of power. Next, it is your choice whether you want to take any action on what you’ve learned, and if so – what? And being intentional is very powerful. But that’s another post.