Once, I was talking to a young barista who after several years of working in the same cafe was no longer happy serving corporate world customers with whom she could not relate. At this point, I proposed to her to do the same job, but at a different cafe, perhaps catering to a younger and more dynamic audience she wanted to see. After all, there are millions of cafes popping up all over the world nowadays and there are certainly enough job opportunities for young and hungry people like herself.
As such, I was not proposing to make a life altering decision to change her profession altogether, but she could drastically improve her life satisfaction by changing the environment she was working at. She would do it by changing her location, coworkers, and clientele. She could even stay within the same chain, by looking at other cafes owned by the same chain, which would require a simple conversation with her manager or HR department. I’m sure that the chain would go an extra mile to keep a competent, trained, and experienced worker who proved their worth over years of service.
Indeed, we are not biologically programmed to be doing the same thing all over again indefinitely and we need some variety. At the same time, we don’t need to make drastic life changing decisions and we can do similar work but in a different environment, perhaps even better paid.
Thus, many people are afraid to make any sort of move, even if they are very well established in their profession, career, and life. They could have something better if they just take time to look around the corner. The only thing they’d require is to refresh their CV, to spend some time looking around, and ultimately to have courage to take the next step to improve their well-being. After all, once they managed to get a job, so they can do it again.
Lastly, some jobs like being a barista are generic, meaning that a person in this case study does not necessarily have to settle for yet another job in a cafe. She can do a range of jobs that pay similar wages, but require a whole new different set of skills.
