Creating Joy at Work

Written by Rebecca Kiting, published for Australian Ageing Agenda.

A few years ago, I found myself completely engrossed in an episode of The Slow Home Podcast. It featured an interview with Carolyn Tate, the author of The Purpose Project – A Handbook to Bringing Meaning to Life at Work.

It got me thinking about my own life: where I’ve been, where I’m at and where I wanted to go. It brought about deep reflection surrounding my physiotherapy career path and using these learnings to make a positive impact in my current role.

I had a fairly typical progression into physiotherapy. I was a professional soccer player exposed to the world of physiotherapy during times of injury and decided to pursue a career in sports physiotherapy once retiring from the game.

As a young athlete I knew my sporting career wouldn’t go on forever, and I figured being a sports physiotherapist would enable me to stay in the sporting community I loved after retirement.

After graduating from university, I joined a leading sports physiotherapy clinic in Canberra where I was exposed to elite-level sport almost immediately. However, one year in I was unhappy and wondering whether this was the career I wanted.

I told myself to give it one more year and re-evaluate and look elsewhere if I still lacked inspiration at work. The second year came to an end and I was still unhappy so I made a career move to become a physiotherapist in aged care.

I thought the role would give me work-life balance and buy me time to work out which way I wanted to head in my career. Two years on, I still don’t know exactly where I want to go but that podcast and Carolyn Tate’s advice gave me insights into my previous decisions, how things could have been different and helped guide me to where I am today.

It wasn’t that that first job wasn’t a good fit for me, but rather I hadn’t brought my purpose into my workplace because I hadn’t given myself a chance to find my purpose.

Purpose brings joy and meaning to life. Accomplishing something meaningful can provide a positive impact within yourself and to others. Purposeful living doesn’t have to be about doing something else or different like sitting on a beach as a digital nomad making a six-figure salary.

Finding meaning and purpose in our current situations can bring sustainable joy and help improve our relationship with our workplace for the long term, without having to sell up.

I recently listened to the interview with Carolyn Tate on The Slow Home Podcast again and I am so happy I did. Last year, I became that person who traded in work for nine months travelling around Australia.

I dabbled in some remote work and found out pretty quickly that full-time travel and working on the road is not the life for me. The trip, though, gave me a chance and time to slow down and think about my purpose and how to bring that into my workplace.

Carolyn Tate suggests to start with bringing what excited and motivated you when you were younger.

I’ve always loved being a leader and a teacher and easily fell into leadership roles in sports, school or university. Prior to taking the time to reflect on my purpose I hadn’t realised leading and teaching brought me joy.

Since returning from my travels I’ve been able to bring this purpose – teaching and leading – into my role. Now is the most satisfied I have been at work in a long time.

Work still gets tough and some days I don’t want to do it. But doing it with my purpose in mind gives me motivation, direction and enjoyment at work.

Working in aged care, and particularly in this current climate, can be limiting, unmotivating and frustrating. But as individuals we can all work towards making a positive difference, big or small.

Staff turnover is high, but what can we do to change that? Finding my purpose and bringing it into my work environment has allowed me to improve the company I work for and increase my enjoyment at work. To enjoy life – including work – I need to ensure I continue to create the opportunities that give me purpose.

How can you improve your joy at work by making meaningful change?

As a leader, how can you support your colleagues to also find their purpose so they can bring change and improvement into the workplace and enjoy turning up to work each day?

Rebecca Kiting is physiotherapist and aged care support manager at Guide Healthcare