It’s never too late to love your labours, writes Sharlie Morais
Work, work, work – as the sensational Rihanna hit of 2016 goes – can be all-consuming.
Whenever the word ‘work’ was mentioned for a while, that song popped up – thankfully that’s over and we’re just back to standard work.
We spend most of our lives going to work, being at work, or even just thinking about work.
We daydream about how much we hate it, how much we love it, our next steps, what we could do to be better or simply wondering when 5pm will come around?
We spend more time with colleagues than we do with our actual families – this might be a blessing for some of you, but for others it’s heart-breaking.
It’s no wonder we start families and bonds within work.
“Work situations” can consist of a “work husband”, “work bestie” and “work mom” – a set of people who can slightly threaten the real husband, the real bestie and the real mom, who don’t like to hear stories from the “work situation people”.
I unfortunately don’t have neither a “work husband”, or for that matter a real husband. I’ve searched the streets of Wolverhampton for a real husband (that may be the problem!) and all three floors of the office but to no avail.
My “work mom”, however, is straight-talking, says it as it is.
The fun about “work families” is that they can be any age, from any background, culture or religion – they are just people who click and you love being around.
I think I’m lucky to say my current and previous teams have been amazing. My previous team consisted of laughs, pranks, riddles, races, singing all the words to Gangsta’s Paradise, petty arguments – oh and work obviously, this office had no “work parents”, just a bunch of “work friends”.
A few signs that confirm you’ve made it at work – firstly you’re invited into the WhatsApp group chat, that’s like getting your stripes.
Another sign is the social media requests – you’re going to be okay if you’ve been added on Instagram or Facebook by colleagues, they like you or want to be nosy, probably both.
The Sunday night gloom when you can’t really enjoy the ITV drama because you’re thinking about work and wondering if you’re feeling 100 per cent. A tiny sniff and your questioning your ability to function in life. We start thinking about marking the Euro millions in desperation, surly it’s my time, I feel lucky this week. We often build up this worry and when we get there it’s not all bad. Everyone is in position and ready to play their part, the resident office comedian drops the morning joke, thank you Mr Selvey, that one took a second to second to sink in, but I get it now.
The funny thing about work is whether you work a nine to five, or you’re a stay at home parent, do a 12-hour shift or do the graveyard shift, we still do it because we need to.
Not every day are we going to be feeling like Mary Poppins, but our work is necessary even though it may not always seem to be appreciated.
I do enjoy my work and find a lot of satisfaction in what I do which encourages me more and more every day. I think it’s crucial to have a good balance at work, a good balance of smiles, laughter, hard work, passion and focus.
We need to enjoy at least some aspects of our work and if it pains your soul to be there then find something you love, have passion for and go get it.
I believe it’s never too late to change lanes and invest all those hours we spend at work into something we love. Tough days come all the time but you want to be able to say, when you get home at night, “I love what I do”.
