EngineerHer

The wheel of life is a coaching tool to help people identify which parts of their life they are happy and content with and the areas they aren’t as happy with. Now, I don’t have any affiliations with that website linked above, but it has a decent enough explanation of the wheel of life.

But the title of this post is “wheel of work”, not wheel of life. Well, yeah. For many of the people I speak to, work is where they want to focus. There are well aware that there are other areas of their lives where they might not be 100% happy, but frankly, they want to focus on work and why would I stop them?

OK, there are areas of life that will have an impact on work, career and jobs. And, to be honest, it’s rare the client that we never talk about life outside of work. However, when someone comes to me and is very clear already that they want to work on their career, role, professional life – I don’t see the point of working through the wheel of life.

But I do like having a wheel of work to base a discussion on. It helps to focus on what aspect(s) of the person’s job is/are bothering them.

What is the wheel of work?

I first came across the wheel of work in this book by Rozalyn Willocks. (Yes the book has only been published a few months and this concept has already become a major part of my work with clients!)

Now, I’d had something like this for a few years, but hadn’t thought to put it in a structured set-up as Willocks does in her book. It makes it a lot easier to be honest than working through different aspects. It provides structure to the conversation and allows me to work through the various areas of work life with a new client in a systematic way.

And – as an engineer – I’m a big fan of systems. It helps things not to be forgotten! The areas of the wheel are as follows:

• Pay and benefits
• Job security
• Opportunity to use skills
• Safety of work environment
• Relationship with colleagues
• Relationship with management
• Fun at work
• Meaningful work

Now, there are some people out there thinking “there are so many other aspects of work that are important, why those 8”? With some people I adjust them slightly. But for most people – this works. And you’d be surprised about the amount of people for whom pay isn’t the issue, but benefits is. Or job security, safety, relationships etc are all great, but they’re bored out of their mind and they need to find a new challenge (that can show up under “opportunity to use skills” or “fun at work”. Because, yes, I have a firm belief that you need some element of fun at work. Even if it’s just the rehash of whatever-the-current-BIG-telly-show-is at lunch time. But something, somewhere, has to be fun to keep you engaged and working.)

Job market is crap right now, why bother?

Well, ok in Ireland, the job market isn’t crap really. In fact, there’s full employment in the country (Check out this website for the details on the employment rate) So, it’s a decent time to be looking for a new role. If you are an engineer – and most people reading this blog are – there are plenty of opportunities out there right now.

However, even if you’re in a different employment market – my friends in the US tell me it’s horrific over there – there are still reasons to engage with assessments like this one. Why? So that you at least understand what it is you’re looking for in work.

As a basic default, most people are looking for a job to cover their cost of living and working. We’re looking at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy here: physiological needs like food, water, clothing, shelter and safety & security.

Now, I know in some job markets (ahem, US again) working multiple jobs on the quest to support bills, rent etc is more normal than it should be. But most people, in my experience, are looking for one role to pay their bills. So, the above statement stands.

But here’s the thing. If you are valuable to your organisation, or probably more realistically, to your manager, then you have some negotiating room. Seriously. If you highlight which area to focus on, it can really help focus those negotiations.

Particularly if you’re not looking for more money, it’s nearly always possible to negotiate something.

More training?

Secondment to a different area/ team?

New project to engage with?

The important thing is to be clear about what you’re unhappy about, how you’d like to fix it and when your timeline is.

But does this actually work?

Well, actually, the more specialised your role is in an organisation, sometimes the more difficult it is to move away from it. If you are the only person in your organisation that can work X system, then the chances of ever escaping the damn thing are low.

So what to do?

Well, first is to develop very clear, simple, step-by-step guides, going mouse-click by mouse-click, for the processes you utilise on the system. Start with the ones that no one else does. Outline what access they need, and start from the log-in screen.

Trust me.

The things you think are intuitive about this system, won’t be to a newbie.

And I know this seems like you’re giving up all the knowledge and information that keeps your position safe. It may be a risk. But otherwise, you’re never going to escape where you currently are, until that system is replaced, or upgraded or changed in some way. And that happens more often than you think.

By developing these procedures, you have an answer to your manager’s first question (which is likely to be “who’s going to manage X system in your absence?”) It’s better to forestall these questions really. Gets the manager thinking along the correct lines.

Now, you can push back a bit here and say, look, you can some yer woman over there to do 80% of my work and that frees me up to develop in this area. This will give value to the org by a, b, c…

What if the manager says no?

Chances are they will – at first. Or at least say, “not now”. Which could be due to budgets, or access limitations, or the time of year, or the phase of the moon, or whatever. The reasons don’t really matter as much as your follow up.

Can you agree to be allowed to spend some time training up someone else on the basics? Just as a business continuity measure, this would be sensible.

Can you sign up for a free LinkedinIn course and complete it on work time?

Is there in-house training you can look at for some entry level training on what you’re interested in?

Is there an updated system you can investigate to implement and get ahead of the game?

Have 3-4 options for your manager. I’ve started off by saying, “Look, this is what I really want to do, ideally”. Then moving on to the slightly less desirable approach, and so on and so on.

I’d give some time as well. The larger the organisation, the more conversations and approvals your manager has to get to get anything done. Trust me. Now, I’d also be asking the question in any 1-2-1 you’re having as well, just a casual “Any progress on X?” and leave it at that. But once everything three months or so, I’d do a bigger reminder.

How long you continue on this path is up to you. But there will come a time when you feel like you’re being fobbed off and need to look at an alternative option.

Job hunting

Yeah, I said it. I’m not a proponent of skipping a job at the first sign of something you don’t like. But there is always a point where it just becomes too much and it’s time to move on.

Whether that’s at the same organisation or a different one depends on you, the organisation, the situation etc.

But here’s where the wheel of work comes in really valuable again. You can go back and say what’s really important to you. Be extremely clear on what’s valuable and what isn’t.

Once pay is above a certain amount, it kinda becomes less important. To move back to Ireland in 2013, I took a paycut. Moving to Ireland was far more important that maintaining that level of pay. OK, the exchange rate had a lot to do with said paycut, but still. It was the right decision for me, for my family at the time.

On the other hand, moving organisations is one of the few ways to achieve a major payrise as well. I’ve had a payrise of 25% at times when moving roles. (that’s rare, but not unheard of!) If a major raise is your goal, then a new organisation is probably your best bet. Internal moves usually have a cap on how much of a payrise you’re allowed to get. I know – miserable, isn’t it!

Where to start?

Well, I do have this handy career assessment workbook to get you started. But even just starting with the wheel of work above will get you somewhere.

It’s important to know what’s extremely important to you and what’s not so important. Is work purely to fund your outside hobbies and interests or do you gain significant value and happiness from the work you do? Are the relationships you hold with your colleagues valuable or so long as you mostly get along with everyone, are you happy enough?

There is no right/wrong general answer here, but there most certainly is a right/wrong answer for you. And these questions are probably the most important ones to ask yourself if you’re not feeling happy.

So give the wheel of work a try!!