‘I hate my job’,

Nooo – not me (but what an interesting post that could be)!

A friend said it to me the other night during dinner.  And I don’t often need to look too far away to hear or read similar words… ‘Are you happy in your job?’ she asked.

I nodded and replied ‘I like my job’.

In fact…. I like my job a lot.

If someone asks me what I do for a living, their response is often ‘wow, you’re lucky, sounds like you have great job’ or ‘did you write your own job description?’, which is ironic, because I actually do write my own job description.

We all do here at SK Chase.

Once a year, we have a ‘Performance & Salary Review’, to check in on staff member’s achievements and review their work over the past year. It is also a chance to show how they wish to develop their roles.  As part of this, we also complete a ‘staff energies’ table; which is a table with all the functions in your business (i.e. IT, Marketing, Sales, HR, etc.), and we simply write down if we have up, down or neutral ‘energy’ around that particular function.  So there are real opportunities for you to grow into other areas, should you wish to. And from this, you write your desired position description.

Our position descriptions provide clarity to each member of the team as to what is expected of them in their role, in terms of functions, tasks and capacity.  In this way it ensures SK Chase is remaining effective (all tasks are being carried out) and efficient (there should be no duplication of tasks).

They also provide a tool for time management – to ensure each function is given the capacity required, and team members are able to measure how much time they are spending in a particular function. By putting together a proposed position description for the following year, each member of the team gets the opportunity to choose which areas of the business interest them the most, so that every member of the team is working in areas which energise them.

And once we have done this, the HR Manager, together with the two owners, sit down and look at our position descriptions, energies, capacity in each function, what’s happening in the future, and lots of other things I’d imagine. And from that it’s agreed who does what, and what percentage of their time they will spend in that function. The top line is ‘what’s best for the business’; the second is ‘where does this person’s energy lie?’.

So we get to write our own job description here.

We get to choose what we do.

Just reading that again, it seems crazy that someone would stay in a job that they disliked; but I know it’s not simple. You train for a role, work your way up, are on a level of salary where walking away and trying something new is simply not an option.  And it’s easy to stay in a job, that you might not like, but you know what do.

So rather than feeling trapped by my job, like my friend, working at SK Chase has given me freedom.

SK Chase has created a culture that empowers and involves everyone in the business; that gives freedom.

I’m at my happiest when I’m doing something I love: I’m completely in the moment,  when I am ‘living my intent’ and in my case it’s ‘to create’.  And at SK Chase it matters that you live your intent – that it’s part of your job.

Kaye Taylor, one of the founders of SK Chase, reminded me,

’Intent is the ‘why’ we do ‘what’ we do. When I’m living my intent, I am completely connected and aligned – I feel free; like I’m flying and in tune with the universe. When we’re living our intent we don’t feel like we’re ‘doing’ anything – more that we are being who we really are – and it’s effortless.

Why is it important that we live our intent at SK Chase? How amazing would it be if everyone felt like that every day?!’

For me, my intent is where my heart is.

So I said to my friend ‘Well if your heart isn’t in it…’, I paused and shrugged my shoulders, ‘What about finding a job where it is?’