The most common jobs in Nigeria right now are ones gotten from a third-party company that is signed to provide employees for various employers. While I worked at one, I found that, the reason employer companies choose the option of contract staffs is to reduce its expenses and improve profitability. So, while a full-time employee may get a 50% raise from your salary, including HMO benefits. This is even more annoying for Contract Staffs because they do more of the work but have less benefits, up until the length of days to go on leave. However, there’s always a way to have the life you want regardless of the situation presented to you.
KNOW WHO YOU ARE: This is nothing about your desires or visions (at least not for the purpose of this post). What makes you thick? Deep down your heart, what’s the core of your strength. The real test to enjoying your job, hence your life, is to know who you are. When no one’s watching, and you have nothing, there’s a core of you is the strength of your existence. It is what you will be regardless of the amount of wealth you amass. Although the search of identity may be an ongoing process, there’s a core of you that reveals your truth in whatever situation you find yourself. Everything you believe yourself to be should not be dependent on anything else but you. Once you can identify who you are, it would facilitate the emergence of what you’d like to experience.
CHANGE YOUR COGNITIVE EXPERIENCE: The natural cognitive of man is attracted to negative situations that appeal to his senses. So for example, you get to find out the extra benefits due to full-time staffs in your company and it freaks you out (well, you should), it is only normal that you begin to take it out on your daily routine, colleagues and even your line managers.
Two years after my experience as a contract staff in a financial institution, I was appraised and suggested to be converted into a full time staff. I was excited when my line manager hinted me on this new development and was waiting for the big announcement. To my greatest disappointment, when my appraisal form got to the office in charge, my group head was summoned and asked, “Who would you like to be retrenched in order to approve Adesewa’s conversion?” Confused, she responded, nobody. “Well, because the company cannot afford the cost for another full time employee,” they disclosed.
It was great consolation to have known that the reason for the default was a lack of the company’s capacity, not mine. If this happened to you, I know you would freak out, and probably drop your resignation notice to go somewhere you’ll be ‘celebrated, not tolerated’. Just calm down! LOL! The quality of the delivery of your duties should be influenced by positivity. Contract jobs hardly come with motivations. Thus, you must always find a way around it. While you have a plan to quit, be deliberately positive about your daily dealings. The more positivity you exude, the greater the attraction for more. If it doesn’t happen for you in this job, it would somewhere else.
CREATE VALUE FOR YOUR PERSONALITY: One of the many reasons people want to be in the full-staff cadre is so that the company can place value on them. The true value of your job however is not dependent on your position, but your personality. Quit thinking the reason you’re not doing well right now is because you don’t get so much pay. Your pay may not equal your plan, but it does not necessarily influence the core of you except you want it to. So, during a knowledge sharing session at your company or a proposal pitch, you have the platform to ‘show yourself’. Yes! Flaunt the stuff you’re made of! This is not PRIDE; it is PURPOSE-ON-DELIVERY. Always look for opportunities to reveal who you are asides from being the Front Desk Officer or Cashier. Profer solutions to problems. That’s what employers want to see. Even though it may likely not buy your conversion as a staff, it would increase your value as a person. You are first a person before being someone’s staff. Work at it!
WORK EXPERIENCE IS IN PHASES, ENJOY THIS ONE: A young entrepreneur who also works as an employee reached out to me one day. She shared all her frustrations as to how she was not getting fulfilments with her job. She mentioned how she knew this was not want she signed up for her life and all. The truth is, at every point in life, we get bored. This is not just a contract thing, stop blaming it on the job. Because, guess what, even if you were full time, you would still get bored. All days are not the same. So, here’s what you need to know. This same way with life, all work experiences are in phases. You have to learn the art of enjoying the phases by creating systems that work for you.
At the financial job experience I told you about, every week became annoying because there had to be something new to do – things that were way out of the initial job description(JD). Whichever way I felt did not matter to the company, the job had to be done anyway. And the only way to be happy with your job is to be happy with you, knowing that this is only a phase. You would get involved in better things and greater opportunities, so if you want to make your life count, you have to do it right.
ALWAYS WORK WITH THE END IN VIEW: You know, many times, we are motivated in the present by having a vision of what’s to come. Doing your job with the end in mind is one sure way to enjoy what you’re doing currently. So, pending the time you find something more ‘ghen-ghen’, let the ‘ghen-ghen’ thing inspire the not-so ‘ghen-ghen’ one. The vision you have for yourself should drive your passion for what you do now. You may not like what you do now, but when you look at the experience later from the inside in, you’ll see it was necessary for your journey. See the end in mind, Live the present, Create your future!
Adesewa Greg-Ighodaro is a certified leader and media enthusiast. She loves to inspire through writing and speaking. Asides from being a published author, she enjoys content marketing. Connect with her via social media @adesewainc
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