I kinda like my job. Most days it's just a job where I can work for my check and my insurance. I work from home, I get a great amount of time off, I was even able to adjust my work schedule to make time for an artist residency that I was accepted for.
Other days someone asks me a question and I will drop a significant amount of personal truth steeped in depression and anti-commercialism on them. Tell them how what we do has no meaning and is contributing to the downfall of small business, entrepreneurism, and crushing the dreams of “the little guy”.
It doesn't matter what the questions were in the survey. I think it's more of the answers that came up within me as I read them. See below:
“I do not really feel that my concerns are important enough to anyone outside of my team to warrant change. What I consider my individual talents and skills are not what I use on a day to day basis for my work. The role that I play within my team is like a cog in a machine making sure that things run smoothly. While it may be considered productive, I do not feel that my work is fulfilling or worthwhile.
“I do not feel that I am in a career with growth opportunities but a stationary job that I am provided with differing responsibilities as I stay longer. I'm unsure how to find meaning in this or what would offer professional growth.
“I appreciate the balance afforded to me with the amount of personal time I'm able to take. I appreciate that my supervisors are open, supportive, and understanding; but I believe that says more about them than the company.
“I work here because it's a job. It's a good job, and I've stayed because of the flexibility allotted with personal time and the culture of inclusion, forward thinking, and charity that [company] supports. I find no grand feeling of fulfillment or meaning in the work that I do for the company. Some days that's really hard because getting out of bed to do work that doesn't feel fulfilling is difficult. I wish I knew of suggestions that would help make my job more fulfilling, but the truth of the matter is advertising seems useless to me. I worry about our people.
“I do not feel that my team is satisfactorily staffed nor is the impending retirement of long term team members taken into account for staffing needs and the training of replacements. Because of this I worry about keeping my job and I worry about wanting to stay in my job. Another reason I stay in my job is to support the people that I've grown to admire and cherish as work friends. If I wasn't here their workload would be worse and detrimental to their mental and emotional health.
“I do not trust [redacted name of parent company] to make decisions that continue to make [company] one of the best places I've ever worked. I worry about their influence on our company culture and structure.
I have elaborated on this in another part of the survey
“I often feel caught on a teeter-totter of feeling like I'm not doing enough and not feeling appreciated for what I do. While my reviews are glowing I feel that my work has no meaning and very little purpose.
“How do you talk to someone you work for and tell them you hate what the company sells but you stay for the people you work with. That you don't feel like you're making enough money to force yourself out of bed everyday to do a job you find no personal fulfillment in, but only to support the coworkers that you've grown to call friends.
Where on earth do I go from here? Now that I've emotionally dumped all over the person who's going to read this anonymous survey response, what happens?