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Mentorship November 21, 2016
Most professionals can tell if they are trapped in a toxic work environment; instead of collaborating, your colleagues sabotage each other’s projects. Your boss plays favorites and rarely acknowledges workers outside of a particular clique. You can’t remember the last time you actually got to take a full lunch break or got home before seven p.m. without judgmental death glares from your co-workers.
It can be trickier to tell, however, when your ho-hum, perfectly civil job is slowly killing your soul. Here are three tell-tale signs that you might be secretly miserable at work and what you can do about it.
READ MORE: 5 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Relationship with Your Boss
When your personal values don’t align with your company’s core principles, it can take an enormous toll on your emotional well-being. For example, if you’re an engineer at an oil and gas company and you secretly spend time wondering if your contributions will help to solve the energy crisis or just contribute to global warming, it might be time to start looking into jobs in renewable energy.
Even if you identify with the company’s stated mission, but the culture or leadership creates an environment that’s totally different in practice, it’s time to get out. Just ask Yuliya Stepanova, a Russian track athlete, and her husband, Vitaly, a former anti-doping official, who together blew the whistle in 2014 on rampart doping practices in the Russian national sports teams and corruption in the Rusada agency.
While it’s normal to enjoy your time off, it’s no way to live if you have absolutely nothing to look forward to during the work week. Ideally, your career is be fueled by passion, not a paycheck or the fear that you can’t find anything better.
READ MORE: Why Bringing Your ‘B Game’ to Work Could be the Best Career Move You Ever Make
If you’re sitting in your cubicle wishing your five workdays would just be over in a blink, you’re wasting 71 percent of the time in your week. That’s just crazy. Can you imagine looking back on your life and realizing you spent most of it wishing the days would fly by faster?
If you don’t feel ready to make the jump to a job that inspires you, or perhaps feel trapped by financial or family circumstances that would make it difficult to transition into another role, at least start thinking about how to enjoy weekdays.
Make your standing date night a Monday so you have a special evening to look forward to after work. Form a team with your friends and join a local sports league that competes one night per week. You’ll get to see your buddies, engage in a little lighthearted competition and finally find time to exercise. Hit up happy hour with your bestie to catch up and unwind. Look for volunteer opportunities that make your heart feel full.
READ MORE: Trouble in the Workplace: What to Do When You Have Beef With a Coworker
It doesn’t speak highly of your job if you wake up in the morning feeling paralyzed by the prospect of going to work.
How many times have you heard a child say “I don’t feel well” to avoid seeing a dreaded bully or to get out of a high pressure situation? Instinctively, you ask the child what’s really going on because you recognize the “sick day” as a symptom of a larger issue. Give yourself the same courtesy. Are you really feeling under the weather or do you just hate your job?
Take time to reflect on your workday: What went well and what would you like to change? Keep a small notebook in your bag and make a habit of jotting down quick thoughts each day. Consider what you’d like to achieve in the role. What professional goals do you have for the week, month or the year? What do you need to do to achieve them? These notes can help you identify the bright spots in your job and also pick out the patterns of negativity that are weighing you down.
READ MORE: Are Women’s Conferences a Waste of Time?
If you realize the things you dislike about your job can be fixed, make a plan of attack. For example, schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss how to get assigned to the type of projects you enjoy most. Talk with your project manager about an idea to improve a process so that feedback gets through faster. Ask a colleague how you can better work together to avoid unnecessary or duplicate work between departments. Once the red tape is cleared, and you are actually able to do your job, you may find you get more satisfaction from your work.
However, if you realize there are too many roadblocks (people or processes) at your current job that interfere with your professional goals, it may be time to move on to a work culture that supports rather than detracts from your ability to thrive.
