A lot of us of had the feeling before, and a lot of us have had it multiple times, and a lot of us may not have had it, but probably will in the course of six co-op terms. It can be only described with one word: dread. That is the only way to describe how I felt on the third day of my job, when I was spending the entire day making a map on paint directing Mexican diplomats how to get to their respective hotels and restaurants for their stay in our nation’s capital (I know, I guess they don’t know how to use google maps). It was the confirmation of something that I had already suspected: my job SUCKED and it wasn’t going to get better.
I’ll try to stay light on the specifics because I want to help people survive their own terrible workplace experiences for which the number one rule I am going to come back to over and over is: don’t dwell on the situation! Let’s just say I did work about 20% of the time, which consisted of checking emails, googling company phone numbers and, at the best of times, low level excel work (but damn it, can I ever make a good pie graph). So, to be sure, it was a bad job, but I survived and, as those around me knew, I didn’t enjoy it and I sure made that clear. Overall however, I learnt some valuable lessons that I want to pass on to those stuck in the same situation.
As I’ve said before, do not dwell on the negatives of the situation! Leave work (or as I called it, chair sitting) behind when you leave the office, and focus on developing other skill sets. Whether it be getting in shape (I have never ran as consistently and as much as I did in Ottawa), taking a new course (beginner car care and Aqua Fit for the win!) or doing some sightseeing around your new digs, get the most of outside work as you can, because sometimes that’s all you got.
Secondly, make friends if you can. Working a crummy job is a serious confidence downer at times and one of the best ways to relieve the associated stress is to hang out with friends. There’s only so much fun you can have by yourself, and having friends around is a good way to escape the mentality associated with your crappy job. Unfortunately, friends do not come quite as easy during co-op as they do at school sometimes, but WatPubs, courses and friends of friends are great ways to make friends. Even grocery shopping with a friend can be therapeutic after a frustrating day at the workplace. If you can’t……try harder. And if you still can’t, make damned sure you have Skype.
When you’ve exhausted all other options at work, you can get creative. I taught myself a fair amount of HTML, JavaScript and CSS (W3 schools is a great website), as well as some VBA. If you can, downloading compilers to teach yourself other programming languages is a good idea. Beyond this, when things get desperate, I learnt that feeling guilty about doing nothing gets you nowhere. Do the work you need to do when you are given, ask for more and look for opportunities but when you’ve done that, it’s not your fault anymore. Try to be productive, but do not feel guilt ridden about facebooking, listening to sports radio, reading cracked.com, or office communicating (just try to keep the conversation appropriate as I had some close calls) during the unbearable moments during the day. Most readers are probably thinking, ‘But what if I my boss catches me?’ My answer to that is, if your boss hired you to do nothing and you have exhausted your options, he has no case in getting angry with you.
My second most important rule for co-op, is don’t count the days! I started counting down at about Day 65……..and up until about day 25 my life was unbearable. It took a long time for me to accept that I had to do it, but once I did, and I stopped counting down and obsessing about the negatives, the term went by a lot faster.
One of the biggest downfalls of my attitude towards my job was what I have come to call the ‘comparison complex.’ I spent so much time comparing my own crummy job to the amazing experiences of my friends, and it only resulted in bringing down my confidence and making my job even worse. Your future employer will not know how much or how little you did at your previous work terms, embellishment goes a long way in both resumes and interviews. When your next employer looks at your resume, and then at your friend’s resume who had the most amazing coop job in the world (as you have heard over and over), he or she will know little about how little you did and how much your friend did. So don’t waste your time worrying about it, it’s just another way of dwelling on the negatives.
Last fall was a long four months for myself. My job was garbage and I was far away from home without much company. However, the first two months were horrendous compared to the last two. By the beginning of November, I had accepted the situation and made a genuine effort not to waste the final two months of the year. The results were really positive. I made some great friends, got in shape, acquired some skills and just felt better in general. After all, work isn’t who you are, it’s what you do. Once I learnt that, my work term from hell became a lot more bearable.
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