Most of us have felt that dread in the pit of our stomach’s. That awful feeling on a Sunday evening, when you realize that you have to go to work tomorrow! A classic symptom of career unhappiness!
If you haven’t experienced it, consider yourself immensely lucky!!! Over 75% of working people have felt that dreadful feeling at least once in their life time.
A feeling of no escape! A feeling akin to my little boy’s frantic cries in the mornings, “Mom I don’t want to go to school”.
Your brain says, “I wish I didn’t have to go to work yet again. I am unhappy in my job but I need the money!”
It is one thing to have that feeling once in a while. For some people it comes and goes depending on the type of work or a particular change at work. But if you feel it constantly and going into work everyday feels like a chore, its time to pause and figure out the underlying reason for this unhappiness.
It is definitely not something that can be ignored! How we feel at work can easily seep into other areas of our life. There have been so many times when I’ve let my work tension take over my relationships with my spouse or my kids. Our career unhappiness affects our well-being!
So what causes this unhappiness?
The plain harsh truth is – misalignment between you and your job!
How is that possible you ask? This is the career I dreamt of. This is the job I went to college for. When I started this job, I was really excited about and did well for the first few years. So how can I be unhappy in this job now?
What we all fail to take into account is the fact that over a period of time either we EVOLVE or our jobs EVOLVE!!! and this causes the misalignment.
Let me explain.
As humans we are constantly growing (may not be physically, but rest assured most of us are experiencing a level of mental change). The information we consume, the situations, people and experiences we have over a period of time, cause a certain level of mental change/growth/evolution.
If your job does not evolve along with you or if you do not evolve with your evolving job, there is a misalignment.
Your job needs to evolve to meet your new levels of expectation in terms of challenges and interest or vice versa. If not, this can lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction at work.
On the other hand, sometimes jobs evolve sooner than people do! Some typical scenarios of jobs evolving include:
- people asked to take on additional responsibilities that they are not ready to take on
- assume another person’s role
- the work environment changes due to a merger
- people are not ready to move up the career ladder and there is an expectation for them to do so
- new changes in the workplace, team, technology etc
These can also lead to career unhappiness.
It is a precarious balance between us and our jobs. Anytime this balance is slightly shifted, we fall into the pit of career unhappiness. The sooner we can cause the balance to shift back again, we can lift ourselves out of the pit.
Here are 3 things you can do today to prevent falling into the career unhappiness abyss.
- Job evolves: Stay on top of trends in the marketplace in area of work. By staying current, you are in the know as to what direction your job maybe progressing in. Are there new technologies or there new tools looming in the horizon that you need to start paying attention to? Are there some certification classes or online classes you can take to start exploring these new areas? Are there experts in your area that you can follow and learn from? There are experts in every possible area posting content on LinkedIn. If not Linkedin, these experts are on major industry publications or even podcasts. Stay listening/reading and consuming their views on the direction the industry and your work may be moving in. This helps you form your own opinion and do further research as needed.
- You evolve: Most of us are constantly growing. As we consume information and experience new things, our thoughts and interests change. Step back and reflect on where you are in your life and career and what you seem to be interested in. Remember, this is not as straight forward as easy. It is akin to peeling the layers of the onion to learn and more reach the core. There is a lot to journal and reflect. If you notice that you are interested in some new trend in the market, for eg: Big Data, ask yourself
- Why? What about that topic interests you?
- Why is this interesting to you now, at this stage in your career?
- What about your current work situation irritates/frustrates you?
- Do you like the kind of work you do but no longer enjoy the office politics or the people you work with?
- Do you love the company you work for but no longer feel challenged by what you do?
- Both evolve: This happens too! You and the job have evolved. Again it is a matter of trying to bridge the gap that may have risen due to both having evolved. Use similar questions as mentioned above to see if there is a future for you at your current workplace.
What stage are you in? Do you currently feel aligned to your work? Or is there a gap?
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