Are you happily sad at work?

·      Do you feel disinterested in your work but nevertheless take pleasure in the company and solidarity of the folks?

·      Do you think that all jobs are tiring and frustrating else work would have been known as pleasure?

·      Do you often wish that you could change your career when your friends and acquaintances talk about theirs?

·      Do you feel that it is not worthwhile to embark upon a job hunt and that it is alright to carry on with the type of people that you have as colleagues?

·      Do your acquaintances, friends or relatives opine that you are well-entrenched and that it is no point going for a change?

·      Do you apprehend that your appointment may be scrapped?

·      Do you often ponder over the issue of establishing your credibility and reliability because everybody knows your capability?

·      Do you envisage that finding a new job is plagued with difficulties?

·      Do you realize that you are good at your work, though the job is not to your liking?

·      Do you realize that a career change is fraught with perils vis-à-vis the position that you hold today?

·      Do you concentrate only on the off-putting aspects of a career change rather than looking at the optimistic side of it?

·      Do you detest your work but yet do so for the monetary benefits it offers?

·      Do you doubt if you will be able to get into a comparable position at some other company?

·      Do you ever count the number of years left before you retire from your work?

·      Do you feel that your workplace environment will improve sooner or later and hence it is worth the trouble to stay put in the job that you are in?

If the answer to any one of the above questions is ‘yes’, you are definitely not having a good time at work. And if your response to two or more questions has been likewise, you can be described as one who is happily sad. You are almost certainly suffering from a self-imposed and self-wreaked career related disorder generally known as ‘comfortable misery’ and which is exemplified by inactivity feelings along with an overpowering necessity to let things remain as they are. It is not that happily sad people cannot function capably but they fail to derive any pleasure from any attainment that they may have in the process. Human robot is perhaps the best term to describe them.

The point to ponder is why people clutch jobs that they otherwise loathe. There could be a horde of causes, some direct and some indirect:

·      Outlook that nothing can ever be better than the present.

·      External exhortations that whatever had to be attained has been done and is good.

·      Absence of networking to discern actual comprehension of skills possessed.

·      More or less total confidence in organizational hierarchy.

·      Excessive workload and accountability in a stagnated appointment.

·      Relaxed working environment with little accountability.

·      Inability to confront the likelihood of a new job hunt.

        A happily sad person can lead to collapse of treasured associations and enduring contentment. He also tends to become depressed, loses self-respect and misses out on newer avenues. It has been established that men and women who abhor their work invariably transmit antagonistic thoughts into their private lives; the adverse effect is thus passed on to their family and social circle alike. Career-related dissatisfaction, irritation and disturbance is taken out on blameless members of the family; needless to state but important is the point that such a development creates fissures in personal lives.

        When you reach the age of fifty or sixty, comfortable misery has a propensity to destroy all comfort levels and become more miserable. That is the time perhaps you will make allegations in retrospection. ‘Had it been so’ feelings surfacing two or three decades later will not help in bringing back the times gone by, wasted in a pointless pursuit. You will then realize that time is one article of life that just cannot be stocked up or reloaded.

        But a happily sad person can become happy. Comfortable misery can be restored to health.  You can do so in a number of ways, however, you will have to pronounce tomorrow as the beginning of your life; its dawn will signify the opening chapter of your remaining life. Some tips to smash your inactivity and ennui are:

·   Widen your circle of contacts:  You should endeavour to network and establish contacts. How do you do so? You can join any professional club or actively participate in social service programmes. As a thumb rule, try to know a new person every five days. At your workplace, try and get involved in a new project; in this way you will be able to draw out your expertise and bring about company gains. You can even volunteer to work in a different department at your workplace.

·   Start a job hunt:   You can be on the lookout for a job or even career change – it could well be within your current company or in an altogether different setup. If you are unable to take the first step for whatever reason it may be, there is no harm in seeking external help. Career counselors and placement agencies do help.

·   Meet calamitous aspirations head on:   You need to look all that has been worrying you straight into its eyes and contemplate on the worst that can happen to you. Attach an out of hundred likelihood factor to it and then proceed to work out a strategy to deal with it in the eventuality of its occurrence.   

·   Improve upon your qualifications:   This implies expanding your knowledge and expertise base. Identify subjects that genuinely interest you and join a training institute that offers a course in them. In this way, you will be able to add force to your skills.

·   Solicit support:   That you were not on the correct path is known to all. Now that you have decided to apply corrections, you can well ask your friends and family members to support your spanking enthusiasm. Let them shout approval for and applaud you.

·   Regard your career as important:  You should concede that your career ranks high in the attainment of your life’s objectives. The golden rule is to never ever regard your work as a punishment; on the contrary, always consider it as a facilitator to act according to your inner desires. Regard it as a medium through which you can repay the world for what it has given you.

Remember that there is a dividing line between existing and living; and that life goes on. Once you shed that comfortable misery, you will be happy. At that time, you will not cry because it is over, but you will smile because it happened.