WASHINGTON — A job is more than just something you do to pay the bills, it is also a relationship. But what should you do when you’re in a bad relationship with it?
The Mom Complex’s Katherine Wintsch said that like any bad relationship, you have to be willing to walk away at some point.
She said that employees should make sure that they are in a healthy relationship with their jobs and that they are in a trustworthy and fulfilling relationship with the workplace.
“If you spent the night catching your daughter’s throw-up and you walk in to work the next morning and your boss says ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ and you respond ‘Oh, I’m great. Everything is wonderful,’ that’s not a sign of a healthy relationship,” Wintsch said.
Wintsch said that in other relationships, lying in other parts of your life would be considered unhealthy, so why would your working relationship be any different.
Honesty is the best policy, she said, but you don’t have to be honest to the point that it makes you look bad.
“You can be honest and say, ‘Things are bad at home but I’m ready for the job.’ I think it makes you look like a better employee than if you’re just smiling and nodding and acting as if everything’s hunky dory all the time,” Wintsch said.
She said that it does not have to be your boss but you have to have some outlet at work where you can be comfortable being honest. It could be a co-worker or peer that you can confide in.
Another sign of being in a bad relationship with your job is constantly giving up personal time for work.
“If you’re sacrificing personal time and yet the opposite is not true,” your relationship with your job is not in a good place, Wintsch said. “You should be able to leave work and run a couple of errands; you should be able to pop out at lunch and do some groceries if you need to.”
“If you are in an unhealthy marriage or relationship, anybody would tell you that you should walk away from that. So why not continue to look and keep an eye out for opportunities where you can have the best of both worlds.”
WTOP’s Veronica Robinson contributed to this report.
