Sometimes you realize that your job just isn't for you. Most people will tell you to find something more suitable. But this is not always possible. There are many reasons when you cannot leave: economic crisis, family circumstances or your own limited opportunities in your profession. So what do you do if you're stuck in the "wrong" job?
What the experts say
Gretchen Spreitzer, professor at the University of Michigan: “People are very unhappy when their work has no meaning or purpose for them, provides little opportunity for professional development, or leaves them empty at the end of the workday.”
Whatever the reason for your dissatisfaction, you don't have to just live with it or quit. In fact, even if you are able to find another job, staying in your current job may be the best option. “Finding and changing jobs is not a trivial issue. Very often, this can be a loss of career and income rather than a benefit,” says Amy Wrzesniewski, an associate professor at Yale University. The good news is that there are usually more opportunities to change your work than you think. Here's what you can do about an imperfect job situation.
Start with yourself
If you're dissatisfied with your job, the problem is often your personality, says Sigal Barside, a professor of management at the Wharton School. Naturally, some people are prone to eternal dissatisfaction with everyone and everything, while others have a more optimistic outlook on life. Before you declare your job unsuitable, it is worth asking yourself: “Am I a person prone to dissatisfaction?” This realization won't make you believe your job is better, but it may make you think twice about looking for a new job. Will you be happy with this new place?
Find meaning
Spreitzer's research shows that trying to find more meaning in your work can significantly improve your satisfaction. Barside also agrees with her, and recommends looking at your job responsibilities through various prisms. For example, if your responsibilities include menial tasks, try to remember that these are just stepping stones to a long-term goal and you won't be doing them forever. Or, if your job is mentally and emotionally taxing, such as social work, remind yourself that while you are tired, after all, you are helping others. In addition, communication with colleagues helps a lot. Spend time with colleagues you like. “Strong emotional connections at work lead to a variety of positive physiological and social consequences,” says Barside.
Change your responsibilities
If you can't change your point of view, you can change your responsibilities a little. And for this you don’t necessarily need to move to another department or get a promotion. Spreitzer and Wrzesniewski suggest using The Job Crafting Exercise to restructure your job to better suit your motivations. strengths and hobbies. Make changes to your workday routine. For example, if your most enjoyable task is communicating with clients, but you don’t always have time to do this, “drowning” in documents, you can always make appointments with clients in the morning. Or, conversely, you can save time to communicate with your clients at the very end of the day for a pleasant end to work.
Change the people you interact with
If you don't like the job, but the people you work with, you can try to change their attitude. Focus on creating relationships that give you positive energy rather than sabotage it. Look for people who can help you do your job better. Of course, if your relationship with management or co-workers is particularly strained, you may not be able to work with them.
Don't complain
When you are in a job you don't like, you want to complain about it to others. But you shouldn't do this. “Complaining about your job and your employees is looking for trouble. You never know which of your colleagues might find out about it and who you might tell.” In addition, you can “set up” others. If you're unhappy, it's better to focus on what you can change rather than bitching about what you can't.
Improve your skills
Take advantage of every opportunity to improve your professional competencies. Be sure to attend all corporate seminars, trainings and development courses. An additional certificate can help you advance in your career and also improve your chances when looking for a new position.
Make the most of it
Yes, improvements made to the job can make it more bearable, but you should always be open to new opportunities. Make sure your resume is always up to date and that you take advantage of every opportunity to network with people in the field where you want to work.
Main
- Maintain relationships with people you enjoy working with.
- Evaluate what you don't like about your job so you can minimize the time you spend on undesirable tasks.
- Improve your skills and learn.
- Take advantage of every opportunity - if you can't change your job today, your circumstances may change tomorrow.
- Believe that work is main problem if you are prone to dissatisfaction.
- Thinking you're stuck means there's usually more room to change your work than you think.
- Constantly complain about your work and humiliate your colleagues.
So, your long efforts and searches have been crowned with success. You found a new one and got the desired position. It seems that now life will get better and everything will be fine. However, many employees, after starting work in a new place, are surprised to realize that everything is not so good. The manager turned out to be a tyrant, the team turned out to be a bunch of gossips and envious people, the new responsibilities were not encouraging, and the salary was no more than in the previous place. What to do, if new job turned out to be not at all what you imagined?
High expectations
Experts emphasize that most often it is employees who were expecting something more who are disappointed in a new job. Such high expectations very rarely correspond to the real state of affairs in the company. Your dream job, with a loyal, huge wages, awards, bonuses, friendly team, and also close to home - of course, great luck. But you should look at life realistically and not expect that all this will be concentrated in one job. To avoid finding yourself in such a situation, you should find out as much as possible about your future company, preferably, even at the interview stage, talk to one of the ordinary employees and hear their opinion about management and corporate ethics.
Don't rush to leave
The first reaction to disappointment in a new job is to turn around and leave. After all, you’ve only recently been here, you haven’t had time to get used to it yet, so you might as well look for a new job. Experts emphasize that such a decision could be a huge mistake. The adaptation period takes on average 3 months. Set yourself a goal - to hold out during this period. It may turn out that your first impression was wrong. For example, the boss simply had Bad mood, and an uninteresting task is an isolated case. If after 3 months your opinion about the new job has not changed, leave. This position is not suitable for you, and it will only get worse.
Talk to management
If you are not satisfied with specific aspects of your new job, do not remain silent - go to management and talk about these unpleasant moments. Perhaps the boss simply did not know about this problem, and your suggestions and comments will help change something for the better.
Look for the good
Try to find something good in your new job. Maybe it is located close to home, or employees are regularly paid bonuses? Or perhaps the employer offers a social package that includes free trips to a sanatorium on the seashore and a children's camp?
Leave beautifully
If you do decide to quit, don’t slam the door. Try to calmly explain to the employer what exactly doesn’t suit you, tell them that you tried to join the team, but it didn’t work out. Perhaps the manager himself realized that this position is not suitable for you, and will sign a letter of resignation without objection.
Do you love your job? Tell me in comments about your major and why you like it!
It’s interesting that only in Russian the word “work” is derived from the word “slave”, and the word “dismissal” from the word “will”?
Why do we go to work? It is possible that you have asked yourself this question more than once. Why do you have to do something you don't want to do? Why can't you do what you want? How to make sure that work brings both prosperity and joy, and does not take everything away free time? Man was born to be creative and create endless love and happiness. But the social environment, through its influence, creates such confusion in his mind that he ceases to distinguish work from conscious creativity and creation.
The word “work” contains the root “slave,” and work implies that a person does not create and create, but sells himself into slavery for a certain time. Therefore, no matter how good the conditions of hired labor, an employee will never miss the opportunity to express his dissatisfaction with his employer and the work in general.
Many people believe that work is necessary for financial security. But for last century humanity has automated and mechanized production, learned to use energy natural resources, mastered the energy of the atom, created artificial intelligence and much more. With such an increase in opportunities, a colossal amount of time and labor resources would be freed up, and a person would have to spend no more than an hour a day on the work necessary to support life. But for some reason the working day remained eight hours.
This raises a lot of questions. Why do we spend so much time working? Who do we work for the other seven hours? Why, instead of creating and creating our lives, do we sell our labor? Why don't we build our lives in such a way as to be free and not work for someone? Why do we ourselves sell our free time by making a deal, and then express dissatisfaction that work takes up all my time, strength and we are underpaid? And what will we do if we have free time with this way of thinking? — Watch TV, play on the computer, go shopping, clubs and look for entertainment?
The reason all these questions arise lies in the fact that many people do not want to take responsibility for their lives, shifting it to someone who willingly “helps” them with this. This leads to the fact that instead of creating and creating their lives, people sell their labor and ensure their existence. The life of such people fits into simple diagram: to be born, get an education, find a prestigious job, buy a house, car, dacha, give birth and raise children, sometimes go on vacation, grow old and die. One can only wonder how they manage not to go crazy in such an “exciting” pastime, which can hardly be called life, although people call it that.
Think about it: a person spends an average of 9 hours every day at work, including a lunch break, 2-3 hours on the way to work, 2 hours on various preparations and putting himself in order after work. And if you add housework, it turns out that a person has no time left not only for development and learning, but also for normal sleep. So for a whole week people spin around like a squirrel in a wheel, and on weekends they make devastating raids on stores like the Mongol-Tatars on Ancient Rus'.
The word “work” according to the Complete Church Slavonic Dictionary, 30,000 words, compiled by priest master Grigory Dyachenko, 1899.
From this vicious circle there is two exits. The first is to give up everything, which for many is almost impossible. The second is to make your work conscious, turn it into joy and creation, become a master of your craft, work without stress for your own pleasure and receive enough income to live in abundance and not worry about the future.
Each of you can become a master - the owner and creator of your life. To become a master, you need to learn and consciously apply the acquired knowledge in your work. Find something you like, master it perfectly, and your work will bring you only joy and satisfaction. Mastery gives a person the opportunity to control his working time in accordance with his state of mind and preferred lifestyle. In other words, “we work as much as, where and when we want.”
What to do if you don't like your job?
Do you know the true motivation of what makes you sell your labor and almost all your free time?
Adhering to existing beliefs, beliefs, rules and norms of behavior in society, unconsciously identifying with generally accepted stereotypes, you begin to accept them as a guide in life. One of these stereotypes is the idea that a person must earn a lot in order to then spend the money he has earned and saved.
The social environment creates the belief that the more money you have, the more pleasure you can get. But to provide a person with the necessities, you don’t need so much money, and you need much less of it than you earn average person. A person can derive true pleasure from life itself and all its manifestations. And the “pleasures” that society produces and offers are invented and are destructive. Creating the illusion of joy, prosperity, fulfillment of desires, they are like shackles that fetter a person and lead him to hard labor, forcing him to work all his free time.
Please note that most of the goods and services imposed on you by influencing your subconscious through the media are not vital. All this is needed only to fulfill your desires or provide pleasure for a certain fee.
Take, for example, a holiday at sea. The vacation itself is quite inexpensive, but society imposes on you a service that is not at all necessary to sunbathe in the sun and swim in the sea. And thinking that you are paying for a vacation at sea, you are paying precisely for this service the money for which many of you are forced to work every day from morning to evening. How much do you need to work for a waiter in a restaurant to serve you? And this tendency is manifested in everything: in nutrition, in clothing, in everyday life.
What makes you live this life? Is it the belief that you are no worse than others? Is this your belief? And isn’t this very belief a social ploy?
The very belief “I am worse than others” may mean the desire to be better. But if you rent an expensive hotel, drive an expensive car, drink expensive wine, does that make you any better? And then society tried its best, creating the belief that everything that is most precious is for the best. But is it possible to become better than you are?
You already exist and cannot be better or worse. The desire to become better, to live better is an internal hidden belief that you are worse, which is an idea imposed on you by society so that you really believe in it and strive to earn more. But it's a trap! After all, you are already who you are, and you cannot become better by earning more and purchasing more goods and services.
To avoid falling into such traps, do not take other people’s beliefs for granted, do not believe what is happening in your identified mind. Trust only your inner emotional guide. Observe carefully what is happening around you, what is happening within you. Distinguish the present - the one that is happening here and now, from the invented one, created by your imagination from ideas and beliefs that society so kindly provides you with in unlimited quantities, inviting you to a tempting land of wish fulfillment only in order to make you work from morning to morning. evenings.
Sometimes it happens that after working for some time, you realize that your job is simply not for you. Most people will advise you to find something more suitable, but this is not always possible. There are many reasons why you cannot leave: the economic crisis, family circumstances or your own limited capabilities in your profession. What to do if you are stuck in the “wrong” workplace?
Whatever the reason for dissatisfaction, you don't have to just live with it. But it's worth noting that even if you can find another job, staying where you are may be the best option. The fact is that finding a job is a non-trivial issue, and often it can result in the loss of a career and earnings rather than a benefit. The good news is that there are several ways to change your work.
Reasons for changing jobs
Career ambitions are often the reason for changing jobs. Hardly an activity without opportunity career growth(if we are not talking about gaining experience, which is usually gained in small firms) will suit an active and energetic person who strives for results. The lack of career prospects, as a rule, is disheartening, since such people strive for self-improvement, want to move forward, develop and apply new skills. If the type of activity does not allow you to realize your ideas and stifles your potential, then in this case you can think about how to find an offer that will completely suit you in this regard. However, try to first talk to your immediate superior and find out about real prospects. Of course, he won’t tell you everything, but general outline can outline the possibilities. After communicating with him, make a decision whether to change jobs or not.
Remember that the activity should be interesting, excite and captivate you. If the situation is quite the opposite - you feel melancholy just from the thought that you need to go to work (and this is not a matter of ordinary fatigue), at the workplace you constantly look at the clock and count the minutes until the end of the working day, you feel overwhelmed and sick, but disappointment covers positive emotions- you should seriously think about changing your job, because you cannot be under constant stress. Also, you will not achieve success if the field of activity does not correspond to your moral principles and beliefs, tastes and characteristics of your character. For example, working in the editorial office of a yellow newspaper is definitely not suitable for you if you do not like gossip and gossip.
There is another reason why people begin to think about changing jobs - this strained relationship with superiors or colleagues. Of course, such an environment will negatively affect labor productivity and will not allow you to fully concentrate on getting the job done. But you shouldn’t immediately look for a new job; you need to try to resolve the conflict. It should be understood that even the best leader rarely evokes warm feelings; you will still have to obey him, and submitting to the personal will of your boss is not the most pleasant experience. Therefore, you need to think carefully about whether to change jobs or not, because it is unknown what surprise will await you in your new place. First, try to improve your relationship with your old boss rather than building it with your new one. Psychologists recommend seeing in your boss a person with his own experiences, weaknesses and attachments. Try to find neutral topics for conversation, find out what he values in people and what he doesn’t, and take this into account in the future. If you couldn't find mutual language, then analyze how difficult it is to work in this environment, and only after that make a final decision.
The situation is much more complicated with dissatisfaction in the team, since their feelings are more unbiased. You need to be neutral (especially if you have recently joined this team or are on probationary period), do not respond to aggression, do not succumb to manipulation, do not open up too much and do not discuss your colleagues (especially in their absence).
Often the cause of job dissatisfaction is insufficient wage. Some had their salaries cut in the process labor activity, for others, the organization’s remuneration policy is not in line with the market and it has not been indexed for years. But in this case, several points need to be taken into account. First of all, you should understand whether you really don’t have enough money or whether your pride is hurt. You also need to make sure that you, as a specialist, deserve more, and find out if you can find an offer that is better than the previous one. And finally, consider whether this is the only reason you are dissatisfied with your job, and if so, ask for a salary increase. The reaction of management to the professional growth of an employee and to the increase in his responsibilities is very slow, and basically acts on the principle - if he is silent, it means everything is satisfactory. Therefore, do not be afraid to ask your boss for a raise (directly or hinting that you have received a lucrative offer); if they ignore you, it’s time to think about changing jobs.
In any case, remember that health is the most important thing, and no amount of money can buy it. And even if you do not work at a nuclear power plant or mine coal, this does not mean that nothing threatens you. Disorders, worries and chronic stress can cause enormous harm to your health. Working all day on your feet, without even a chance to sit down, can lead to leg diseases, and working in a damp room can cause pulmonary diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the actual harm to health.
Sometimes it happens that in the process of work you begin to realize that you are not doing what you would like. But don’t be upset, you can always change your profession. The only problem is that in your current field of activity you have achieved a lot, gained experience, established connections, but in your new one you have none of this. Of course, this is a huge risk. But if you find a job in your desired specialty, it will definitely charge you with energy and fuel your interest. The desire to do what you love is a completely worthy reason to change your workplace.
In some cases, people change jobs due to the great responsibility that falls on their shoulders. Many, having reconsidered their views, decide to devote more time to themselves and their family, so they change their activities to less stressful ones or even go freelance. Also, people often overestimate their capabilities, as a result of which work becomes real torture. Of course, if you are not satisfied with something, but by and large you like the work you are doing, this is not a reason to change jobs.
To accept correct solution And make no mistake, psychologists recommend the following solution. The piece of paper needs to be divided into two parts, and in each of them indicate the pros (reasons to stay in the same place) and cons (reasons to change jobs). In this matter, you need to take into account everything, from the time it takes to get to the office, to the authority of your company in the market.
Remember to always be open to new opportunities. Make sure your resume is up to date and that you take advantage of every opportunity to network with people in the field you want to work in.