How To Cope When You Hate Your Job
I am one of those lucky people who can say that they love their job most of the time. For me, it’s honestly around 90% love it, 10% could leave tomorrow and never look back… During the times when I hate my job, I find each day difficult to get through.
I realised that surely I’m not the only one that feels like this. Whether you always hate your job and you can’t wait to leave or if it is just the occasional phase you go through (like many of us do) I thought I’d share with you my ways to cope when you hate your job.
Choose Your Attitude
You may not be in a position to choose whether or not you have to go to work – but you can choose your attitude towards it. Going to work feeling angry and annoyed is not going to make you love your job again.
Yes – some days being all happy and cheerful will be forced and some days all you may be able to muster up is a neutral approach but either way, you’ll feel a lot better about your job than you would if you allowed yourself to be angry.
Remind Yourself Why You Are Doing Your Job
We all have a reason to work. For some it may be because they love the ability to have their own career, for others it may be the social interaction they get outside of the house and for some it may be because they have to financially. Whatever your reason, remind yourself of it each day.
Tell yourself in the mirror each morning “I am going to work today because…” and above all make it positive. If you are going to work for financial reasons then say to yourself “I am going to work today so I can provide for my family and save for our holiday in October.”
Give Yourself Something To Look Forward To In Your Workday
We all want something to look forward to, even if it is an awesome lunch. Make sure you have something each day that you can work towards and remind yourself of. Perhaps you go to the gym after work and love it, maybe you could organise a lunch date with friends during the week or it could even be as simple as getting up at 3pm, making yourself a coffee and having a cupcake to go with it (a healthy one of course!!).
Set Goals and Reward Yourself
Based on the same principal as above, set yourself goals around your job and reward yourself when you achieve them. It could simply be ticking off your to-do list at work for a whole week or having a positive attitude about your job for a week. Then reward yourself. The reward doesn’t have to be huge – it could be a magazine or a book, it could be that you get to spend an hour sitting at a café you love having some time out from the world.
Eat Healthy and Avoid Alcohol
As tempting as it may be to turn to food for comfort or a glass of wine at night to relax after a stressful day, neither of these options are going to help you when it comes to your feelings towards your job.
Eating CRAP (Carbonated drinks, Refined sugars, Artificial sugars, colours, and flavours and Processed food) makes us feel like crap, and while it is okay on occasion, when you are in a position where you hate your job and are overly stressed it can be easy to resort to eating these kinds of food.
As for alcohol, it reduces our quality of sleep and as we all know, makes us feel sluggish the next day (that’s putting it nicely). This is certainly not going to benefit you when it’s time to get ready for work in the morning and you’ve had a bad nights sleep and you’re nursing a hangover.
Ask For Help
For the majority of us, hating our job is just a phase we go through. All things in life have their ups and downs and it’s impossible to expect to love your job every single day. However for some, their unhappiness in their job spills over into the rest of their lives and they can’t separate themselves from their job anymore.
For those who are finding it difficult to differentiate between job dissatisfaction and general unhappiness with their life, seeking help from a medical professional can assist in regaining this balance. This may be your GP, a counsellor or psychologist or even calling a helpline like Beyond Blue (in Australia). Just talking to someone can help you work through any problems you’re having.
I’ve been in jobs I’ve hated before, and I mean more than just not wanting to go to work. It’s important to talk to people and not bottle it all up.
These are some really helpful tips! I’m lucky enough to have a job I love, now. I look forward going to work most days after Monday morning has passed :). I’ve also been in jobs I hated. One was awful but bearable until I found another job. The next one was making me sick, chest pains, the works. That was enough and I quit. Thankfully it was the right decision and I found my current job two weeks later and I’ve never looked back!
great article.