Questionable Happiness

Good morning fellow bloggers!

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I’m going to address something I’ve seen since beginning my working placement within my office…questionable happiness.

Although we’re only an architecture practice of 5 (including myself), I observe a vast scale of happiness across the team. From being completely content with doing minimal work for the most money, to doing the most work and earning the most money for others. There’s 2 females in the company, an associate who is 34 years old and me, the student who is 21 years old. Despite being 13 years apart, we kind of just clicked and talk about everything (when the bosses aren’t around) which is great because it’s like having someone in a higher position kind of on your side.

 

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The bottom end of the spectrum:

So I feel that my older work friend is actually at the bottom of the food chain, despite having the title of ‘Associate’. Why? Well, she gets given the majority of the work because shes highly skilled which is stressful when clients always want their project to be priority. She only works three days a week because she has a young boy that in turn means she has limited time to do her work and see her son putting more pressure on time scales. And to top it off shes only earning a little bit more than me although she is on three days a week which balances that out. However, would you be happy earning the same as a student after ten years of loyalty and growth in a company you earn hundreds of thousands for? Can you relate?

The ‘Top’ end of the spectrum:

Now, I highlight the word ‘top’ for a reason. I only see this person as ‘top’ of the chain because they feel like they have control over everything. This is one of the partners within the practice. He does hardly any work, always talks about money and the value of things, talks about his ‘expensive’ watch and car (which he doesn’t even own, lol). Am I impressed? HELL NO! One of my pet peeves is people talking about monetary value of things…inherited from my dad. To be honest, I’d be happy sitting there all day, going out on jollies when I fancied and earning 50/60K. BUT…when the student is doing more work than the boss, then something is a bit unbalanced here. Once in a while I walk past his office and what do I see on his screen? I should be seeing lovely architectural drawings, but no I see Candy Crush or Facebook. Nothing is more infuriating when you’re busting a gut for their benefit! Can you relate?

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How can we deal with this hierarchy?

I mean…there’s not much you can do, they’re your boss and you’re just an employee. However, what we can do is question ourselves…are we really happy in this roll? If you’re not then why waste anymore time? This is YOUR life, you don’t need to be sitting in the dirt while your boss sits on a platinum throne. There’s plenty of companies that are respectful and offer equal chances for their employees.

Since starting here I have been planning my life out a little bit (refer to my other posts you might want to do the same) . I always say to myself that WHEN I’m the boss of my multi successful businesses, each one will have a team working environment and will actually strive to make work fun. From experience I feel that I need to make this happen…Happy employees…Happy company…Happy life.

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Moral : Question yourself and question your choices, but most importantly question your happiness!