Feeling Euphoric or Used-Up?
If you feel trapped and unhappy at work, it may be because your job lacks a spiritual core. Or maybe you fail to bring spirituality to the workplace, or your employer or colleagues discourage it. Or it could be you haven’t learned to integrate work with the rest of your life--to transcend your job by working with it rather than fighting it. This quiz is designed to help you decide if anything is spiritually wrong at work and to see whether you are fulfilled, frustrated--or just plain flummoxed.
1. You have promised to give the next few hours to your spirit. It’s time to go to church, meditate, pray or do yoga. But you also are under the gun at work and face a deadline on a particularly important project.
You:
a. Reschedule your spiritual time until after the project.
b. Decide to attend to your spirit first and address work worries afterward as best you can.
c. Combine the two, seeking to address your spiritual needs by focusing on the project and “lifting” yourself into it, making it part of you, and bringing together soul and work to complete the project.
a = -5
b = +5
c = +10
2. After five long years with a fast-growing start-up, a co-worker confides that stock options are no longer enough. He wonders, “What’s it all for?”
You:
a. Offer to check today’s stock price on the Internet.
b. Share with your co-worker that you bought a red convertible when you had a midlife crisis.
c. Smile sympathetically and ponder how you can turn this “lack of commitment” to your advantage at the next staff meeting.
d. Relate how participating in the company-sponsored stress-management and personal well-being classes sounded hokey, but did help you regain some perspective and helped make work fun.
a = -1
b = +1
c = -5
d = +10
3. You are angry and think it is because of conditions at work.
You:
a. Allow yourself to fill your mind with that familiar fantasy about winning the lottery.
b. Spend all your creative energy figuring out how to get back at your colleagues or boss.
c. Meditate or exercise.
d. Dismiss the anger, focus intensely for a few minutes on what you need to do next, then do it?
a = -1
b = -10
c = +5
d = +10
4. Your company encourages employees to volunteer in a variety of community involvement teams.
To support this:
a. The human resources department offers a list of organizations that could use your help on weekends or during vacations.
b. The company pressures employees to participate in activities or charities that its public relations department then uses to bolster the company’s image.
c. The company strategy includes only activities that boost the company’s return on investment.
d. The company believes that success is measured not only by shareholder value, but also by commitment to social responsibility. Employees are encouraged to form their own action groups and are given the use of company time and resources to organize and execute those programs.
a = +1
b = +5
c = -5
d =+10
5. Your boss has caused a serious problem for you because of a series of decisions she has made.
You:
a. Assume it was done on purpose and steam about it.
b. Complain to your boss and lay the problem at her doorstep.
c. Think about possible solutions and alternatives, then present them to your boss. Ask her how she would like you to proceed.
d. Take a deep breath, walk around the building, stare at the sky and then come back to your desk and try to muddle through.
a = -5
b = -1
c = +10
d = -5
6. Your company’s annual report states that “People are our most important asset.” This commitment is demonstrated by:
a. Computing the sales that are generated by each employee divided by the cost of compensation. That way, the company knows at a glance what each asset is worth.
b. Company-sponsored, ongoing career development and skills assessments. Attendance at job-training classes is scheduled during regular work hours.
c. Giving each employee his own copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute?”
a = -5
b = +10
c = +1
7. A member of your team comes to you and says he needs a more flexible work schedule to accommodate the kids’ soccer schedules.
You:
a. Commiserate, sharing your desire for a more flexible work schedule as well, but say that the department vice president believes that work hours are from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
b. Remind your employee that professional responsibilities take precedence over soccer practice and suggest that he “get his priorities straight.”
c. Check with personnel about the company’s policy on flexible work hours.
d. Ask your employee to design a plan that will meet business needs and eliminate conflict with personal responsibilities.
a= +1
b = -5
c = +5
d = +10
8. Your company now embarks on a quest for “spirituality in the workplace” following a chaotic re-engineering and a debilitating downsizing.
You and the other survivors:
a. View this as management clutching desperately at the business fad of the month.
b. Recognize that there is a real need to discover meaning in your job, and as soon as you have caught up on the backlog of work, you’ll read some books to find out how.
c. Know this is just another management ploy to distract you from the Dickensian working conditions under which you toil. Management is hoping that if they tell you often enough that everything is fine, you’ll believe it.
d. Wholly support this effort, as you too believe that spirituality is essential for success. Spirituality helps to make sense of events that appear to suggest the world is random.
a = +1
b = +5
c = -5
d = +5
9. You believe companies encourage their employees’ spirituality in order to:
a. Reduce overhead. Middle managers can be eliminated because happy employees are self-managed employees.
b. Create fulfilled, enthusiastic employees who are committed to the organization’s vision and purpose.
c. Keep executives busy looking for new paradigms to adopt.
a = +5
b = +10
c = +1
10. Which of the following describes your workplace:
a. An environment where I can put my most deeply held values and principles into practice.
b. An ongoing Darwinian struggle for survival.
c. I give a day’s work for a day’s pay. Too bad for them if they only hired me from the neck down.
d. Why quit when I can work hard making everyone else as miserable as I am?
a = +10
b = +1
c = +5
d = -5
11. A member of your team alerts you to a possible problem.
You:
a. Tell her exactly what the team is to do if the problem arises. You thank her for heading off potential trouble.
b. Brusquely thank her and let her know that, given your current workload, you’d appreciate it if she only came to you with real problems.
c. Begin by asking how she views the situation and what possible solutions exist. You remind her of any conflicts that may result from her solution and how that solution fits into the department’s big picture.
d. Let her work out her own solution, grateful that this latest business “tool” allows you to conceal your complete ignorance of your team’s function and purpose.
a = +1
b = -5
c = +10
d = -5
12. Spirituality in the workplace is :
a. Religious dogma and “God-talk.”
b. Touchy-feely New Age philosophies.
c. A challenge to see work as an authentic expression of our most deeply held identity and values.
d. Praying that the copy machine won’t jam just before the big meeting with your biggest client.
a = -5
b = +1
c = +10
d = +1
If your score is:
Above 80: You are well on your way to business nirvana. This not only makes you an example for others, but also a target for the sarcastically enhanced.
51-80: Burnout is a possibility, but it currently manifests itself as a feeling that you are faking it. Try to get in touch with the meaning of work in your life. Strive to make your job more creative, and look for opportunities where your contributions can be recognized and appreciated. You may have to change firms.
25-50: A vague feeling of unease that you’re missing something . . . like enthusiasm for your job. Listening is required for good communication--begin listening to those around you who seem to have a real delight in their work. You may have to change careers.
Under 25: Hostility is taking its toll both spiritually and physically. Time to begin a serious self-evaluation of your life and the steps that brought you here. If you are employed by the U.S. Postal Service, quit now.
