Recently, I was approached by a friend about a new job that he may take. The problem is with the job he has right now, he’s only been there a month and he feels bad about the whole situation because they sent him to NY for training and now he’s leaving. This is what I told him:

1. It’s not a contract…unless it is.

When you go to work for someone, they pay for you to work, and you work for the pay. If you’re still employed then everyone is getting what they want out of the deal. When they feel the pay isn’t worth what you’re giving (or not giving) them, you got it, time for the unemployment line. You shouldn’t ever feel bad about leaving for a better situation, some circumstances can’t be helped and any smart employer knows this. These are the risks.

2. Are you dumb?

At my last job, I did the typical personal-sick day to interview routine. In my exit interview my boss gave me this lovely quote, “I think it was immature of you to lie about being sick, you could have just told us you had an interview.” Wow. I was shocked. Don’t ever let an employer pull that card. Anyone knows that you have to look out for yourself, and eventually your family too. Sneaking around is unfortunately part of the process of getting a new job and anyone who thinks you don’t have to is either too understanding or not to be trusted. Yeah, let me tell my employer I’m looking around, not get the job, and then get let go because they already cut me out in their minds because I was looking around. Please.

In the end, looking around can make you feel bad because you may feel in debt to your current employer. Don’t. A good person will understand better situations come around and sometimes it’s sooner than later. Give them the 2 weeks for goodwill, make no promises, and get to your new life. Good luck.

Motivation is tough when you’re working on a project that you loathe. It’s a typical scenario, you’re “Johnny DoGood” and offer up your help when your manager or co-worker asks you for it. Soon you realize that you’ve been duped into the worst project you can think of being a part of and you’re staring at your screen saying, “What have I done?” It’s ok. We’ll get through it.

Environment. Do you like it dim? Light? Find what works best for your productivity. Is your chair killing you? Steal the interns. Kill the clutter on your desk, having a clean work space will make you feel that this project is already on its way to finishing itself.

Distractions. Find a way to drown out other distractions, whether it’s your RSS feeds, Email, or co-workers blathering on to people about office gossip, put on some ear covering headphones, close your browser and treat lunch time as your catch up time.

Change. Getting sick of the logic you’ve been staring at for the last hour? Change it up. Work on something else. Having little projects around to pick up can be exactly what you need to get going again. A change of pace is great.

Lastly, break it up. Figure out what needs to be done and the smallest chunks that you can break it out into. Then start slaying that to-do list. If you hate paper…try out Ta-Da Lists. They’re a great way to keep track of what you need to get done.

How do you keep motivated? Share your tips and tricks to getting your work done in the comments.