Community Employment Resource Centre

What’s inside?

ö Avoiding Burnout

ö Personality and Job Fit

ö Quote of the Month

ö Discovering Your Core Motivators

ö Upcoming Information Sessions

ö Winners

Avoiding Burnout

In Peg Neuhauser’s book “I Should Be Burnt Out By Now, So How Come I’m Not?”, she lists some tips for avoiding burnout on the job:

ü Don’t wait for the right circumstances in the hopes that you will be happier. When things get tough, don’t wait to be rescued; rescue yourself.

ü If you’re not dead, it can’t be that bad. Keep things in perspective and if the situation isn’t going to kill you, maybe you are overreacting and wasting your time.

ü Avoiding burnout is not a genetic trait. Anyone can learn to manage their behaviour and thinking but it takes discipline and practice.

ü Don’t look back. Learn everything you can from experience but then let them go. Don’t waste time and energy dwelling on past problems.

ü Keep the list of things you get upset about as short as possible. If you find yourself in a situation that could upset you, ask yourself, “Is this something I’m going to add to the list? If I do, I have to take something off the list, because I want to keep it short.”

ü Know your limitations-don’t be afraid to say “I can’t do it” to yourself and to those placing the demands.

ü Have a balance between the things you enjoy in your life and those that are impossible for you to enjoy. If the balance becomes negative, plan a way out. Don‘t let your fear of the unknown (unemployment) keep you in a place that is unsatisfying. You may see it as the end of the world but in reality it is the start of something new.

ü Assess a new workplace for its potential to induce burnout before making a commitment to change. You can do this by asking current employees to tell you stories of their experiences with the employer, meeting as many people as possible. Ask them what they like about their job and the employer. Beware of the vague answers of those that don’t match your own preferences – these are your warning signs.

Personality is the Key to the Right Job Fit

In the Toronto Star (Feb. 21, 2004), Janis Foord Kirk comments on the importance of finding the right job match to your personality. “You’ll be unhappy if the work you do doesn’t suit you”. She writes about a teacher that always admired teaching and pursued it as a career. Once he got into the field however, he was very unhappy. He hadn’t factored into his decision the role that discipline played in teaching, and this was a role he was very uncomfortable with. “Very often interests don’t translate well into jobs…People say ‘I really like this, I really enjoy that, so I’m going to do it’. You might enjoy the work, but what about the work environment? To choose a career you must explore who you are, completely. Doing so is much easier said than done, however. There are several assessment tools to help you find the right match between a career and your personality. CHOICES is a tool available to you at CERC, and it can help you assess your skills, interests, abilities and match them to various career choices.

Personality type looks at how people function, how they process information and how they orient themselves to their work. During our lives, our personality develops, it doesn’t change. Our personality type is inherent to us very early in age…it is our true self. But we learn that we can’t always be true to ourselves, so we have a ‘developed self’ where we learn to behave differently.

Although it takes some effort, it is possible to find a work envionment that fits your personality, values and interests as well as your skills. It is worth it to get a good fit!

Quote of the Month

”Change is the rock in everyone’s shoe…and some people limp.”

~Reg Murphy

Free Information Sessions

¨ Computer Basics

April 7th

¨ Know Your Resources:

April 14th

¨ Automated Resumes:

April 21st

¨ Choices:

April 28th

Time: 2:00–3:30 pm at

Port Hope CERC

To register call 905-885-2372

* Limited space available*

Discovering Your Core Motivators

In Barbara Moses’ book “What Next: The complete guide to taking control of your working life” (see CERC library), there are eight core motivators listed – these are values that are most important to you in your work life. When you have a good match between your core motivator and the values of your job, burnout will be less likely. Try to find yourself in the motivators described below:

· Sociability seekers – you love working closely in group environments where there is a lot of social interaction. You are usually attracted to larger organizations and the pleasures of your work flow from the interactions with others. You are most likely to be happily employed in customer service, hospitality, retail, hairdressing, etc. You are least likely to be happy in your own business, creative work, information technology and data management.

· Career builders – your long-term goal may be to start and run your own company. Career builders think strategically about every career move they make. You choose to work on projects with high visibility and importance to senior management. You have a strong achievement orientation, and will take qualified risks for the right payoff. You are most likely to be happy working in global organizations that provide you opportunity to advance, public-sector organizations and your own business. You would be less happy in a low-profile nonprofit organization, contract work and service organizations.

· Authenticity seekers – you refuse to ‘hang-up your personality at the corporate door’. You will not sacrifice your own personal expressiveness to play a role. You are self-aware and have a strong sense of integrity. You are passionate about what you believe in. You are most likely to be happy in creative environments such as media and cultural organizations, self-employment situations and non-government organizations. You are least likely to be happy in a larger multinational company.

· Personal developers – you evaluate your work in terms of whether you are improving your skills and acquiring new ones. Once you have mastered a challenge you are eager to move on. Although you are not necessarily a risk taker by nature, you are perceived to take risks if the result will enhance your skills. You are self-managing and have strong achievement orientation. You have high integrity and set professional standards for yourself. You are most likely to be happy employed in sectors of the economy within the managerial or professional ranks, where change is constant, where your expertise is valued and where you act as an independent. You are least likely to be happy in customer-service roles and supervising low-skilled workers.

· Autonomy seekers – you want to own or build your work. You are impatient with rules and uncomfortable with authority. You wish to pursue your own vision, and hold strong personal values. You have little patience with endless meetings and office politics. You are most likely to be happy in an environment where you have the opportunity to feel ownership of your work, your own business, roles with lots of autonomy and contracts. You are least likely to be happily employed in large bureaucracies, customer-service roles and working with micromanagers.

· Novelty seekers – you are achievement oriented and able to deal with uncertainty. You are constantly on the move, from project to project. You have several radically different careers in the course of your life. You need change for the sake of change, not because you are acquiring new skills. You are most likely to be happy in environments with new challenges and content, generalist roles, deal-making roles, your own business and project management. You are least likely to be happy in any given assignment for a long period of time.

· Stability seekers – you enjoy seeing the same people regularly and established routines. You identify with organizational life and values. You are comfortable taking direction from others and do not second-guess the manager. You probably prefer to work for an organization as opposed to being self-employed. You have difficulty adapting to a new work world in which you are forced to change. You are most likely to be happy in positions with clear structure and that is not affected by downturns in the economy (education, child care, medicine). You are least likely to be happy in creative, entrepreneurial environments with high-turnover and less stability.

· Lifestylers – maintaining control over work demands in order to honour personal commitments is critical to your work satisfaction. Office location and length of commute is equally important. In the final analysis, you put personal life before work. You are most likely to be happy in organizations where the employer encourages work-life balance or your own business. You are least likely to find happiness in deal-making environments like banking, and engineering firms.

And The Winners Are…

The winners for our wellness packages are:

¨ Marion Johnson (Cobourg)