Three Signs of a Miserable Job

I had read Three Signs of a Miserable Job awhile ago and thought it was fantastic. I enjoyed it so much that I even wrote the three signs down on a paper and found them again recently while going through my desk and it reminded me of where I remembered ideas like having measurable goals and how in part to try managing other people in the workplace in a way that hopefully doesn't leave me looking like a PHB.

You can read a quick summary here (although I REALLY encourage ANYONE with questions about their job happiness to read the book...it's short, it's easy to read through, and the story format is very user-friendly!) but the three signs are:

1. Anonymity, the feeling employees get when they realize their manager has little interest in them as a human being and know little about their lives, aspirations and interests.
2. Irrelevance, when the employees cannot see how their job makes a difference in the lives of others in one way or another.
3. Immeasurement, which is the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contributions or successes. Without a means of doing this employees have to rely on subjective measurements and opinions of others, usually their manager.

It's something that gives me pause to think once in awhile and sometimes a reason that I plant myself down and start researching either the programming language hobby or plug away at that novel in my head; the hope that maybe one or the other could pay off in a better job function for me. But no matter what my situation is, these three nuggets of wisdom are invaluable for anyone in the working world and that book may help you evaluate if it is time for you to polish your resume and see if the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence...once you can get over the fear that it's greener because of the hidden septic tank, that is.