Its very easy to get an advice of quitting your job if you are stuck at something you hate. A Google search can help you find lots of articles and hoards of advice on how to start a business when you hate your job or how to regain creativity or how to turn your side hustle into your passion. The common theme to all of them is to give yourself a fresh start, push your limits and be open to take risks in the hopes of regaining your happiness.
All of this motivation and self belief advice really looks good on paper, but when it comes to giving it a touch of reality a lot of hard truths and facts (that these articles never tell you) come to light. There also lies a substantial portion of people that do not meet the initial conditions necessary to start of a venture of their own and cannot even quit their dead end job.
So people need practical advice and not something that they could only dream of. Because for them it will be unwise to head off in an uncertain direction while putting at risk the responsibilities that they have. While they also cannot continue to feel unhappy and depressed by not taking any actions to combat their situation.
So what to do when you hate your job while at the same time cannot quit it. Here is some practical advice:
Squeeze Every Bit of Value From Your Job
Remember the fact that sometimes the difference between putting an effort to drag yourself to work and loving your job has nothing to do with what the job demands. One may find eye catching exceptions to this rule.
But if you find a slight ray of hope that something can be squeezed from your current job, then it's better to think of getting a shot at some motivation. Ask yourself this one question: What value does my job create? For example a study done on janitors about job satisfaction found that their small community was able to value and pride their jobs by leveraging the distinct skill they bring on board.
Another study was done on the sales team of a company. It helped remind the team members how their sales brings in the salary of the members of the other departments. This really boosted their motivation to work.
Try To Kill The Cynical and Disengaged You
Remember the fact that if you are being miserable you are only adding fuel to fire. Don't waste hours grinding yourself in the misery and worry, over thinking of all the possibilities of a miracle way out. Instead, you can change your attitude by putting up a bench mark and then evaluating yourself regularly on its basis.
For example, think of yourself as an employee who is just about to enter a meeting room that happens to be lecture room instead. So you are dreading every possible aspect of entering it. But what if you take it as a test instead, where at the end of this lecture you will be judged on a certain number of parameters like: relationship building, engagement with employees, positive contribution to the discussion, to name a few.
Now, if you know that someone will take a test at the of the lecture would you not try to improve your performance naturally. This attitude change will do away with the feeling of demotivation. Moreover, if you are constantly evaluating yourself you will have all the more reason to accomplish more and be engaged in your work more positively.
Find Fun Outside Your Workplace
Nothing can be more dreadful than a combination of a boring job and boring social life. Sometimes one of them compensates the other. And this is what you should aim for. You can engage in spiritual or adventure activities like participating in a sport on regular basis or taking some hobby classes that you have always been putting on hold. This will not be a full-time solution to the problem but it will help you to make your situation seem less awful.
Trying to get the maximum out of the life that resides on the other end, is the best way to deal with the situation, of constantly stepping in between this virtual boundary. It’s all about making your mind think that the cause of happiness outside work is the monotonous and mundane things that you do at work.
Try To Bring Your Manager On Board
There will be things that you must hate about your job and things that you love. Make a list of all those items on two separate pieces of paper. Then eliminate those items that are a personal problem and try to brainstorm a solution for those that are the result of the work culture you are engaged in.
The goal here is to work out these problems with your direct manager or team lead. You can start of with things that you love doing about your work and thank your manager for giving you an opportunity to do that. This will create a good start. Now communicate the key issues that bother you at work with solutions that you tried to come out with. The point here is to pitch yourself first, so that if your boss does not agrees with you, asking for a solution will open up new possibilities.
This is important because you need to make sure whether your manager or the team lead is aware of the problems that you are dealing with. Sometimes managers are themselves under work pressure that they end up ignoring problems that employees face.
Finally, if there is nothing that you can do to find happiness at work it’s important to look for another job or side hustle. But you need to show patience and wisdom and not do things in haste. I would like to end things by reminding you of the following quote: “An average man loves what he does, a great man loves what destiny throws at him.”
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About Author
Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub (https://www.proofhub.com/) — a project management software for your growing business needs. She is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She’s been featured among LinkedIn’s Top Voices for the year 2016, and is also a contributor for The Next Web, Huffington Post & Your Story. She is also a top writer in Leadership & Productivity on Medium. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.
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