Feeling Paranoid

Things are good at work, right now. I'm on top of my work, am getting a lot done, etc. But I'm afraid. Not for any good reason, I just think this work place breeds it in me. Things are never right. Or, there's no guarantee things will go right. Everyone, even my supervisor, feels this way. The people we support live from whim to whim and expect everything. We give support them, we make mistakes, but we are there for them. When we do something right, no-one says anything. When it's wrong...well, I'm sure you all know the routine. So, I'm just tired of feeling like I always have to watch my back. I'm trying to take my own advice: don't take this job seriously. The job is not me. And I do this, to an extent, but not enough. I wonder if it's one of those things I'll always struggle with, that all of us will always struggle with. It's a fine balance - if you take things too seriously, bad things happen. I've had numerous co-workers at numerous jobs who were all cast from the same mold. They had no personal life, so they took their jobs WAY too seriously. These types of people are usually wonderful at the actual work they do, but horrible to their coworkers. Then there's the converse types: those who don't take their job seriously enough and get nothing accomplished. Finding a middle point would be nice, but I haven't had any success...I'll let you know if I find the silver bullet, but don't hold your breath.


Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Submitted by MrPlankton  on Fri, 10/26/2007 - 14:18.

I too have a good work situation currently, but also know how bad it can be at other jobs, and the potential for how rapidly things can get bad at the current one.

I live by the rule "never have more personal items in your office or cubey than you can take out in two plastic grocery bags".

I suscribe to a couple job list serves that sent me email when a job opens that very roughly meets my skill set. This helps provide information as to what is going on in the job market and provides feedback as to what jobs are paying. It's always good to be prepared just in case, and paranoia is not a bad thing.

Mr. Plankton