Grass is always greener on the other side...

Honestly I don't know who coined this term and under what context has it actually origined but nevertheless it perfectly defines the thought process of most of us when it comes to our "work place".

Along all these 8 years of my experience i have met, seen and have interacted with thousands of people globally belonging to different fields and hirearchy but one thing is very common in all of them (including me)......tendency to compare their own-self to some else, irrespective they know or don't know.

The strange fact is this very criteria of comparison varies from person to person and might be guided by his or her socio -economic status, job function, organisation, country of residence, educational degree and won't be much wrong if appearance also plays a role along with many other factors to name. The biggest irony is "what science or technology" has to do with all these traits but still knowingly or unknowingly we practise this.

So where competition of comparison is so tough, then why not to compare job functions or enterprises?? And to be honest, from the very day LinkedIn has stepped in, the completion has gone even more fierce when the victim's picture and role lies right in front of us with a tag line at the bottom glorifying the hierarchy in bold. Although i am not too sure on what typical questions pops up in mind of others but nevertheless...."what am I doing here or God when will be my turn" are supposedly a few out of them.

But what makes us think that?? Why someone who hasn't seen the other side feels that grass is greener there?? Is it just a perception or just a mere self consolation to what we are doing currently??

I think the more relevant question is why we need to compare and what we compare. To me over these years i have always thought in the same way without understanding why grass might be greener on other side. For some it might be incentives, for others its might be office politics, some might be thirsty of knowledge or power. But definitively i guess none has ever successfully answered to this HR question......."Why you want to leave this job" and the irony is none has ever know what the correct answer is supposed to be, coz for all the "Grass has always remained Greener on the other side"

By: Avishek Sengupta