Work ! Happiness ! Does it sound compatible to you ?
Will you be working if you did not have to ?
Many people will probably answer no but unfortunately most of them do not have the choice.
So if you need to bring money back at home, you need to take the best from the 40+ hours that you will spend dealing with people outside of your personal circle.
As studies have found that people who are happier at work have an overall better quality of life than people who are always frustrated because of their job, you have to make everything you can to stick in the first category .
So how do you be happy at work?
As we already said, happiness does not come with genetics (or at least all of it) but is YOUR CHOICE.
Look at the best part of your work whatever it is. Realize how lucky you are to have a job in theses days of crisis even if the pay is not the one you were targeting for.
You will be able to work out that aspect later.
Look for colleagues you get along with. They do not have to be your new best friend for life but at least people you will be able to spend some time with to get to know them. You might be surprised that you are sharing most things in common that initially thought.
Think positively about your work and do not take anything personal from it.
Avoid to be affected with anything work related and bring theses bad feelings at home. As soon you leave the office, switch off the working mode until the next day.
Most of all, stay away from the negative aspects of the office like gossips and backstabbing colleagues. This is not survivor !
You do not need to run over someone to be seen like a good player. Only your behavior and results will talk.
If your work do not share the same value, then do not worry, that job is just not for you.
Be aware that you are responsible from your own professional development.
Some jobs will not provide you opportunities to learn as much as you want but you can take advantage of any free time your work allows to train yourself if you can not find it from your employer.
There are plenty of resources to improve yourself in any domains on the net ( EDX, Coursera, Udemy, …) for free or for a very limited amount of money.
Bottom line, never stop to learn new skills if you want to progress or for your personal culture. Keep on going up!
If you are doing a boring job in an office, you will be able to find time to get train in almost everything.
The job you did not like will actually turn in your new classroom while getting paid and getting ready for your next move.
Take advantage of the feedback from your boss and from your customers.
Even if it hard to believe, bad feedback is the better one you can get to use it for further correction and progress.
Again, do not take it personal, this will help you to get better.
Good feedback is good to be taken to confirm you are doing a good job and for your morale but will not leave much room to spot any opportunity for progress.
If besides all of the above, you are not able to find any opportunity to be happy in your job, it will be wise to re-evaluate your current position.
In case it is a dead-end, make your decision and look for a new job even if wages are a little lower. Your lever of stress and happiness will thank you for this decision !