I’ll never forget this client. It was 2015, and I was sitting in front of a tearful person who felt completely frustrated, burned out, and unappreciated by her superiors.

She was on the verge of a “we should go our separate ways” discussion with her boss, and she knew it. I was called in as a last attempt to help retain this long-tenured employee.

We were charged with streamlining her work and improving her productivity. This was an in-person meeting, and we were surrounded by stacks and stacks of paper in her office.

It felt a bit like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.

She hated coming to work. She faced daily criticism. Her (new) boss didn’t seem to want her there, either.

But there was one significant problem. She didn’t want to work anywhere else. For her, the job was a calling. For deeply personal reasons, the mission of that organization was her life’s work.

We can debate the healthiness of her commitment to this one organization, but the issue was, she felt called to do work in a job that she had come to hate.

So, not unlike the string quartet who continued to play as Titanic’s lifeboats were loaded, we needed to figure out how to allow her to contribute more to the organization than just her loyalty.

Because there were a significant number of productivity issues to deal with.

The feedback she had been getting were vague statements such as she needed to “get organized” and “stop procrastinating.” Working together, we got to the root of the issues and implemented tactical/practical solutions.

We sorted and purged a decade of paper files in her office (surfaces and drawers). She learned how to process (not just “check”) her email. She started using a centralized, electronic task management tool rather than drop everything to “DO IT NOW” so that she wouldn’t forget. Unfortunately, she also forgot quite a lot of things.

But here is the most memorable part for me.

We were having a conversation in our final session about how far she’d come in such a short time. I picked up a random piece of blank paper from my bag and wrote on it in big letters her current job title and company.

I held the paper out to her and asked her if she would (symbolically) accept this job from me right now, even with all that had come before. I asked her to only accept this job if she honestly felt she could love it again.

She accepted the piece of paper. She still works at that organization as of 2024.

Help me love my job again!

Whether you are feeling ho-hum, on the verge of a barbaric yawp, or planning on leaving a trail of destruction on your way out the door, I’d like to give you something.

It’s not a piece of random paper. It’s so much better.

If you’ve been following my hints for the past few months, I am doing a thing. I want you to see it. I’m shaking with excitement for you to see it.

And, because I love you as much as I want you to love your job, this “thing” is free for you.

Here it is.