New Book, Four Secrets to Liking Your Work, Offers Relief from the Monday Morning Blues

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Employee misery is responsible for a lack of productivity estimated at more than $300 billion a year.

"Job misery costs the employer a lot, but it costs the employee everything," says Edward G. Muzio, CEO of Group Harmonics and co-author (with Deborah J. Fisher, PhD and Erv Thomas, PE) of the new book Four Secrets to Liking Your Work: You May Not Need to Quit to Get the Job You Want (FT Press/Pearson; $18.99 trade paper).

A recent Society of Human Resource Management study on job satisfaction concluded that 75 percent of American employees and 82 percent of American executives are looking for a new job. And 15 percent of people are actively working against their employers.

Not long ago the conventional wisdom was that the average person changes jobs about seven times in his/her lifetime. Now, Muzio says, it's probably more than 10 jobs over at least five different careers.

"Changing jobs should not be the automatic response," Muzio cautions. "There is no worse time to look for a new job than when you hate the one you have."

Muzio advocates defining and solving the right problem before leaving your job.

"It's not simply about the people you work with or having a demanding boss."

The trick, he says, is to bring your actions at work in line with your life's purpose. Are you passionate about results, about truth, about helping others? Are you more comfortable in the creative process or in an established structure?

Task type balancing is key. Someone who feels overwhelmed with too many long range tasks may say "we are focusing too much on strategy and not doing enough real work." Someone who feels overwhelmed with daily tasks may say "we do too much firefighting!"

According to Muzio, the four secrets to liking work are rooted in self awareness: knowing how you act, understanding what drives you, knowing what you like to do, and being clear about what skills you possess.

"Clarify what you need," Muzio advises. "The more you use your new perspective, the clearer it will be to you what kind of job and workplace best suits you. Then you won't be changing for change's sake."

Visit http://www.likeworkagain.com for a free job compatibility assessment.