Life is too short to stay in a job you hate

A recent poll indicating 7 out of 10 people have “checked out” at their jobs and dislike their work shocked KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don, who said they love coming into work every day.

Host Ron Upshaw said he was floored by the number of people the poll indicated disliked their job, and was alarmed to hear about the estimated 20 million people that are “actively disengaged” because of how much they hate their job.

When Ron asked if co-host Don O’Neill ever disliked a job so much he was undermining the company, Don said, “No,” but that he’d definitely had jobs he didn’t like.

“Have I had jobs that I can’t stand? Sure,” said Don. “I think that’s just part of it though.”

Don said he thinks having a job you don’t like is an important part of life, and a good experience for growth.

“When you’re doing that stinky job it makes you say, ‘I want to get a better job and I want to make sure I get a job I like’,” said Don. “It’s that particular job – when you have that job when you’re younger, where you say to yourself, ‘hey I can do this right now, but this is what is going to propel me to go to school,’ or ‘this is what’s going to propel me to save some money so I can start my own business. This is what is going to propel me.'”

While Ron and Don both agreed they love the job they have now, they told listeners they went through a lot of less than glamorous stuff to get there.

“You and I would get up in the middle of the night and we’d go throw newspapers, and then we had to pull out all the stops. We did a weekend show where actually we were paying them to do the weekend show. And then we had move five times,” said Don. “So there was a price to be paid along the way to get to the job that you really love and you care about.”

Ron said if you want to be happy at your job, it’s important to find something you’re passionate about and then do what you can to make a career out of it.

“Identify the thing that gets you excited, and then if you need to go back to school, take a night class, take a weekend class, but put yourself in a position where you can actually do the thing that you love. Most people say, ‘Oh I love to do this,’ and then they never put themselves in the position to be exposed to that. So if you really love travel, then go talk to people that do that for a living and see if it’s something you could do for a career.”

“I just think life is too short to sit there and waste away at a job that you hate,” said Ron.