Christopher Beckage, Senior Vice President at Acara, shares his thankful thoughts on work this season. 

As Thanksgiving approaches us in the U.S., we often recognize how thankful we are for our family and friends; however, we often do not recognize the things that we can be thankful for at work.  While most everyone finds their jobs stressful or challenging at times, Thanksgiving offers a great opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and reflect on the things we appreciate at work.

Still stumped? Here are five things that I—myself—am thankful for at Acara:

1. Job Purpose – Sometimes, it’s important to simply remind ourselves why our jobs exist in the first place. We work to solve problems. If there are no problems, then the job disappears or is greatly reduced (The Maytag repairman is a famous example of this, around which an entire ad campaign was formed!).  Create a list of the problems you solve throughout your day, and be thankful for each!

2. Colleagues – There have been countless articles stating that we spend more time with our work colleagues than we do our friends and families. And when you do the math, it’s true! The average American worker spends 47.5 hours in the office each week, typically exceeding our time at home. According to Virgin Pulse’s new Labor of Love Report, nearly 40 percent of survey respondents named their co-workers as the top reason they love working for their companies. In fact—with all of this data on the importance of our coworkers—let’s take a moment this Thanksgiving to be thankful for the colleagues that keep us honest, accountable, satisfied, and passionate.  Don’t assume they know this already.  Go tell them!

3. Competition – Surprised by this one? Don’t be! Competition, whether it be with another business or on a more personal level, pushes and challenges us every day. It forces us to be creative, innovative and, most importantly, it creates new problems or opportunities for us to solve.

4. Leadership – The leaders of your organization contribute quite a lot to your employment. They work to guide your company in the best direction for the greater good and are solving many of their own challenges behind the scenes! All of this ensures the happiness and success of their employees—definitely another thing to be grateful for!

5. Work/life Balance – This can be a struggle for employees in all industries and businesses. Being in the recruitment business, it is common for jobseekers at all levels to take new positions, because they are burned out and feel they are missing out on life. More and more companies are striving to do better here, providing more flexibility and moving to results-based work environments. If you have such, be thankful for how you and your employer have been able to accomplish this! Not all business are there yet.

We hope you find many things—beyond the holiday feast!—both at and outside of work to be thankful for this year. Happy Thanksgiving!