You Have Presence and Meaning in Mid-sized Companies 

One thing I’ve learned working as a full-time employee is that I love working in companies with 200 or fewer employees. 

Why? 

Because I am able to see first-hand how my work is impacting the organization as a whole. 

Do you ever feel unmotivated at work? 

I think a contributing factor to that is because you’re not able to see how your work is creating an immediate reaction in your audience or how your work is impacting the organization as a whole.

In a company this size, I have had multiple opportunities to work with leadership and directors from different departments. 

When I was still in university, I had my one-on-one with my boss on a monthly basis and I’ve only met the director less than five times for the 1.5 years I worked there.

When I am working at a place where I am just a letter in the alphabet, it’s so hard to become motivated. I want to be a capital letter, not just a letter. Get it?

Working at a company this size, I get to see my work distributed to our external audience (i.e., customers) first hand. For example:

• I see my written work and contribution being put in front of member-facing marketing; in other words, members get to see the work that I actually work on!
• I am able to meet with directors and leadership in my department and other departments on a daily basis; this feels great because then I get to show them that I have a presence here.

But most of all, I have an amazing boss who is very understanding. I think she experienced first-hand many of the toxic things that can happen at work, so she is super understanding and checks in weekly to ensure I feel fulfilled at work. 

Work isn’t everything

As much as I love working for my company, during the busy season we’re busy. Like seriously busy. 

When I first started my position, I downloaded the outlook app to keep track of my work emails.

I used to turn my push notifications on for this app and I quickly realized that was a bad idea!

It literally created a situation where my work and my personal life warped and there was no differentiating one from the other.

When I get off work at 4:30 PM every day, I would keep seeing work emails pop up on my screen and this would tempt me to read the emails. 

When I do and realize that it’s for a task I have to do, it stresses me the f out! 

I’d spend the night thinking about how I was going to take care of this problem and end up stressing out.

Remember how I mentioned I had a great boss? She saw that I was replying to emails even when I was supposed to be off, so she told me she wanted me to make sure I was separating my work from my personal life. 

The gist of her message? Work isn’t everything. 

We’re all humans and at the end of the day, even if you don’t get the task done, the world is not going to end.

That was the deciding factor. 

After that conversation, I turned off notifications for this app. I can’t tell you how much of an improvement this had on my life. I don’t stress about stuff after work.

Legit. 

As soon as 4:30 PM hits, I turn off my laptop and put it away. Yes, I don’t just leave my work laptop in the open. I close it and put it under my bed so I don’t have to look at it.

And how great of a life improvement I’ve seen.

If you haven’t already, I highly encourage you to turn off notifications for anything that has to do with your work. 

You’re probably thinking, “But I can’t turn it off. I need to do this,” and I’ll just say, “No, you don’t.”

Life has a way of working things out. I don’t know how this works, but it really does. 

Not answering that email isn’t going to be the end of the world. 

Don’t you think that the reason why you can’t turn off your notifications and that you feel like you need to reply to your work email is that you create those kinds of situations for yourself?

If you actually remove yourself from work, you will realize that you don’t really need to be working 24/7. 

Believe me. You need that separation from work and life. 

I hope this was helpful. What are some useful pieces of advice you’ve learned to appreciate over the years working at your full-time job?

Comment below because I’d love to know.