When J-O-B Is a Four-Letter Word and How to
Change That

In his bestselling book The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, Patrick Lencioni quotes a Gallup poll finding that 70 percent of American workers don’t like their jobs. According to Lencioni, “The primary source of job misery and the potential cure for that misery resides in the hands of one individual—the direct manager.”

Three conditions that create a miserable job:

1. Anonymity or “the feeling that employees get when they realize their manager has little interest in them as a human being.”

2. Irrelevance, which takes root when employees cannot see how their job makes a difference in the lives of others.

3. “Immeasurement,” which is the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contribution or success.

Three ways to avoid job burnout and make yourself happy at work:

1. Use Trapped Downtime. If you’re at risk of burnout from boredom, find ways to fill trapped downtime with something enriching or uplifting. Fill your MP3 player with a good book or advice from a personal-development expert for when you’re stuck in traffic on the way to work. Read about trends in your industry and examples of how your job, your company and your industry are making a real difference in others’ lives. And we know you’re guilty of it because we are too, but don’t eat lunch at your desk. Get out to exercise, socialize, attend a brown-bag seminar or other way to enrich yourself.

2. Start Saying No. (But Do It Politely.) You know your workload and capacity best, so when you’re in danger of burnout from overwork, start saying no. Determine your highest priorities and make progress on those first. Achieving checkmarks on your priority list will give you something measurable to appreciate and invigorate you for new projects down the road.

3. Show Your Human Side. You’re not a robot, so quit trying to be. When something seems unethical, speak up. When something seems counterproductive, offer a solution. When something whole-heartedly tanks your job morale, share your concerns. When managers see your more personable side, they may break past seeing you as just another employee and view you as a conscientious, dedicated professional.

Read more from Patrick Lencioni and dysfunctional teams on SUCCESS.com

Doing your taxes is never fun, but it just got a whole lot easier, thanks to your smart phone! So throw away the shoeboxes full of receipts, because here are the five best new tax apps for smart-phones:

• Next tax app is called Tax Organizer. This app will cost you about $15 a month but it’s great for business owners. You can snap a picture of every receipt with your smart phone and send it straight to your accountant. The app will arrange them chronologically and store them in case of an audit.

• If you just can’t wait for tax time, and want to know your estimated refund right NOW, there’s Tax Caster Mobile. You can enter your basic info, like your income and deductions, and the app will tell you how much you’re likely to owe or receive. It’s good too for when you start a new job or buy a house; you can check to see how that’ll affect your taxes.

• Then there’s I-Donated-It. This app was created by a group of CPAs. For under three bucks, it allows you to snap a photo every time you drop a bag off at the Goodwill or donate a car. Then it keeps a list of everything you donated, when and where you did it and emails it straight to your accountant. That way if you’re ever audited you have some backup.  

• The final tax-app doesn’t have a cutesy name it’s called THE DICTIONARY OF TAX TERMS. The tax code is full of all sorts of confusing legalese. This app has definitions for more than 600 of those words. So if you’re doing your own taxes you don’t get bogged down in mumbo-jumbo. It’s a lot of clarification for not a lot of money; this app is only a buck-ninety nine.