The worst day on the beach is better than the best day in the office!

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

Jane Malone returns today to follow up her previous post to discuss how we can improve the office working environment. (Ed Scrivener)

The worst day on the beach is better than the best day in the office!

I was asked recently whether I had chosen to go in to HR or whether I had fallen in to it by accident.   I was initially surprised by the question and the context in which it had been asked; I would normally expect this type of question at a job interview or networking context rather than in a meeting with a sales provider pitching for work.

For the record, mine was a conscious choice to go into the HR profession.  The question did however lead me to think about whether we do have a truly objective choice about our eventual career path or whether our careers ‘choose us’;  do we fall into a particular career path by chance or  are we attracted to certain professions or industries based on our motivations and values?  Whilst I may argue that I chose a career in HR, if you’d asked me what I wanted to do when I left school, depending on when you asked me, I would have told you that I wanted to become an actress, surgeon or interpreter.  Despite these early career aspirations, I recently completed a career values exercise and felt pleasantly reassured by the outcome that my career path is in alignment with my motivations for development, drive and challenge.

Thinking about how we decide upon our career paths, I started to think about a career-hopping friend who after beginning a career in hospitality management,  returned to university to study to become a solicitor, only to discover, just months into her first role, that she was not suited to this type of work.   Nearly 4 years ago she ‘gave it all up’ to travel to Mexico where she has worked happily as a diving instructor ever since.

Arguably becoming a diving instructor in Mexico was never part of her career plan, yet she is having the time of her life, gloating that the worst day on the beach is better than the best day in the office.

I must admit that on a grey Monday morning, faced with a long commute into the busy West End of London, I do often wish I was rolling out of a beachside apartment, walking barefoot on the white sands of a Mexican beach.  Yet although this lifestyle would appeal for a while, after a time, the same daily routine would fail to satisfy my appetite for development, drive and challenge.

The question we should therefore be asking is not why we have chosen a particular career, but why we choose to stay in a particular role or on a particular career path, and whether what motivated us when we embarked upon that path still motivates us. 

How often do we ask this question of ourselves, or indeed those who we manage?  And, if we are not asking the question; why not?  If we don’t ask whether we are still engaged with our role, how can we evaluate whether we, or indeed our staff, are achieving our true potential?  Where performance levels have declined, how often do we ask individuals about what they find motivating in a role and consider how roles can be shaped and developed to encourage excellent performance before going down the performance management route?  Organisationally could we take more responsibility for creating challenging stretching job roles and creating more good days in the office?

Whilst the idea of giving it all up to work on a beach may be tempting, for me it doesn’t offer the career challenges of my office-based role.  So whilst I won’t be ‘giving it all up’ anytime soon, it has started me thinking more seriously about what I can do to create more good days in the office.

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Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

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