Someone else's work grass is always greener

Trust me, I've walked on many a lawn

When I was on holiday recently I read a book called ‘Never Greener’. It was about relationships, and I really enjoyed it - and the title stayed with me.

The premise is that the people in the book feel that the grass is greener with another person - but it of course isn’t.

And it’s the same with work.

Oh how I’ve spent my career thinking the grass would be greener somewhere else. Not just looking at job ads and thinking ‘is that THE ONE?’ but looking at what other people do and what friends do, and thinking ‘Their job seem loads better than mine’.

It’s always been the way as a freelancer - when you’re freelance, a ‘real job’ seems oh so green and lush. If you’re in a staff job, you probably look at freelancers with envy as they ‘do their own thing’ with nobody as their boss.

I often look at job listings - either on Linkedin, or specific websites. I have no plans to apply for any of them! But it’s nice to look - I browse, I see what’s out there, I look at the words they use and the salaries, if they’re listed.

Essentially, I go looking at other lawns and wonder how green they are.

Social Media, in particular Instagram, can show someone’s lawn as super green, super lush. They’re posting every day, they’re out there meeting people - they essentially have that seating set you’ve wanted for ages and a cool fire pit.

I’ve walked on a lot of lawns: The freelance lawn, the contract lawn, the ‘this job is the one I never want to leave’ lawn. If redundancy is a lawn, I’ve sat and wept on its scorched black ground.

When I trained as a coach, I decided I was never being a writer, ever ever again. I would reject all future journalism and be a coach. Just a coach.

Clearly that wasn’t the case, and, as someone who loves to write, the words just said ‘whatever, lady, we’re still coming’.

I’ve found balance. I’ve learned to try and sit more on my own lawn, and see what transpires.

But I’ll always look, always be peering. That’s normal. So if you do it too, don’t feel like you’re being a traitor to your current role, or freelance business. You’re just seeing what other lawns look like.

You can even ask people what makes their lawn look so good. Chances are they don’t feel it’s as green and lush as it appears to be.

That’s the thing with other people’s work grass - it might look green but there might be weeds you can’t see. They might have spent all their money on products to make it look green.

It might even be artificial.

You can always ask to have a short walk around - AKA asking them about their work life, what they enjoy, what they’d change.

I guarantee they are looking at other lawns, too, thinking they look greener.

The thing to ask yourself is not how to get to the next lawn, but what might you need to do to make your own grass greener? Pivot, promotion, pay rise, change clients… think about those things before you leap over that fence.