Your weekend is fading as Sunday progresses into night and the thought of starting another week of work fills you with dread and lethargy. As well as meeting your fundamental need for an income, work can be enjoyable, provide for great satisfaction and can positively impact happiness and wellbeing, yet many of us endure an unsatisfying job for a range of reasons. The good news is, there are some simple things you can do to say goodbye to those Sunday night blues

Does the thought of another week at work fill you with dread or excitement? Have you found yourself ruminating about leaving your job, but unable to do anything about it for a range of very logical, sensible and energy depleting reasons. Perhaps you’ve been striving towards a long-held career goal only to find that once achieved it still seems lacking.

Lessons learnt from the successful career change program for Holden workers. Story by Amalia Chilianis

I have been in HR leadership roles for more than 20years with a number of large complex global and national corporations including IBM, PwC, General Motors Holden, Government and NAB. A practitioner of Positive Psychology with deep expertise in career and capability development, organisational development, change management and learning. Currently, I’m an author and run my own coaching and consulting business helping teams and individuals develop and change careers.

Those hardest hit by sudden forced changes to their work is not determined by their skills, qualifications, experience or income level, but often by how people construct their sense of identity. A person’s work identity can help them advance through adversity or it can be their undoing, it can make or break them. Supporting the closure of an automotive manufacturer, I witnessed first-hand how it was often those whose sense of identity was so heavily tied to their work that when work was taken away, they no longer knew who they were without it. Being able to construct your work identity in a positive way will help you traverse the highs and the lows of any career.

Entire businesses or teams of people are now working from home and I applaud those organisations who are taking measures to attempt to stem the impact of the current health crisis.

Work and life are inextricably linked, and the pandemic forced the blurring of the lines between work and people’s personal life. Many employers have taken positive steps to help support their employees with the challenges brought on by lockdowns, working from home, restrictions in the workplace and newly imposed demands on personal life. From years of experience in HR Leadership roles combined with the research from my book, here’s my recommended approach for helping employees make their work and life work better together.

In the world of work we are often focused on the day to day of getting the job done, however sometimes we need to help employees steer their career in a new direction. This might be to ensure they have a long-term future with the company, to adapt to a change in business strategy and/or to better align with their own personal aspirations or find them a better job fit. Here are some practical things you can do to help your employees to steer their career in a new direction.

Getting your team to work well together is not only critical for performance and achieving or exceeding your goals and targets, but also makes work so much more enjoyable. A little bit like parenting, just when we think we have it all figured out something unexpected happens to throw things off balance or into a complete spin. There are some practical ways to help your team work better together and continue to do so even when faced with challenges and change.

Productivity, innovation and financial performance have all been shown to be connected to employee engagement. One of the key ways you can boost engagement is to help your employees gain greater satisfaction with their career. While as HR professionals or leaders, you can’t make someone be more engaged, you can definitely improve and influence the environment, conditions and factors that will enable increased career satisfaction for others.

It’s a big responsibility and commitment when you’re hiring someone new and a decision rarely taken lightly. There’s excitement and anticipation about the problems they’ll solve, the extra help they’ll provide or the growth they can help you achieve. As a small business owner optimism, whether it comes naturally or has been learnt, has to be part of how you operate. So when you first see the signs that maybe you have made a poor hiring decision, you hope that it will just take a little time for them to learn the ropes and settle in.

Living with the fear of losing your job?

Feeling powerless and anxious?

Uncertain of what to do?

You’ve made the tough decision that you want to change jobs, but interviewing for a new job fills you with dread, is something you haven’t done for years or when you have interviewed it hasn’t gone well. You’re not alone, performing confidently at interviews doesn't come naturally to many people. Most find it difficult to promote themselves and talk confidently about what they’re good at, their experience and achievements. However, if you understand how to interview well it will become less daunting and more likely you’ll land that new job. Amalia Chilianis, author of Work-a-holistic, a practical guide to changing careers shares her top 5 tips for nailing job interviews.

Positive body image and benefits for consideration as part of health and wellbeing.

Yesterday I took my daughter to the airport where she and her year 7 class mates are embarking on a two-week New Zealand adventure. They will be hiking, white-water rafting, visiting glow worm caves, lakes, a glacier and so much more.