Job satisfaction is something we often hear about in job descriptions and team meetings, but putting it into practice is a challenge. It's not uncommon for people to hate their job and feel stuck in their work-life.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, it's a good idea to list down the parts of your job that you don't like and tackle them one by one. To help you get started, here are six reasons you might hate your job and what to do about it.
1. Your Manager Is Not a Good Leader
As the saying goes: people don't quit jobs, they quit managers. Oftentimes, a neglectful manager can ruin what would otherwise be a great job. While good managers look to inspire their team and address their grievances, bad ones are inconsiderate and unprofessional.
What to Do:
When dealing with a bad manager, it's easy to jump to conclusions about their personality, but that's not going to help. Instead, you should be questioning their management style. It's likely that they may wrongly perceive their style to be effective, perhaps because it worked for them in the past.
Bring the same to your manager's attention and ask them to tweak their management style, but remember to remain professional and respectful. Assume that they simply want the best results for the company, and they are unaware of how their style is hurting you in the process.
2. You Can't Spend Enough Time With Family
One big mistake that business owners and managers tend to make is assuming that everyone has (or should have) an entrepreneurial spirit. While it's a good thing to be ambitious about your career, most people simply want to go home after their shift is over, so they can relax and spend time with their family.
The level of determination one is expected to have towards their job depends on how much stake they have in the company. But sadly, amid the toxic hustle culture, it's all too common for employers to force their employees to work overtime and somehow make it look unproblematic by calling it “loyalty”.
What to Do:
Ask your employer for remote work. Not only does working remotely cut down your commuting hours, but it's also super helpful for employees who are parents, need medical care, and perform better alone. You can spend more time with your loved ones, become less stressed, and increase your productivity.
3. Your Work Is Irrelevant to Your Values
What you stand for as a person and what your job requires you to do are not always in harmony. And this mismatch between your values and your work life can lead to distress and feelings of being out of place. For instance, an environmentalist wouldn't want to work in the oil industry.
What to Do:
Know that your work life and your values don't always align, and that's okay. You can still channel your motivation in other ways. If quitting your job to find a new one is not an option, you can find volunteer opportunities online that focus on contributing to the causes you believe in.
4. Your Coworkers Are Toxic
For the sake of maintaining professional decorum, many of us tend to keep shut about our toxic coworkers. And while that's a noble act, you shouldn't have to bear immaturity at work, no matter how many times you've been told, “we're like a family here”. A coworker's unprofessional attitude is not your job to fix.
What to Do:
Don't take their behavior personally. You may not have control over your coworker's behavior, but you do have control over how you respond to it. If they work in a different department, distance yourself from them. If you can't, learn to ignore their comments. The more attention they receive from you, the more of an incentive they have to provoke you to see your reaction.
5. You Don't Feel Needed in Your Team
A big reason why people get demotivated and unwilling to go to work is simply because they are not sure how their services are even contributing to the company goals. In other words, they feel as if they're not needed and aren't bringing any real value to the table.
What to Do:
Talk to your manager and ask them to help you visualize your role in the company, preferably using your performance report. Oftentimes, a session with the HR manager can remind you of the value of your position. It's helpful at times to take a step back and measure your efforts in quantifiable terms.
6. You're Not Rewarded for Exceeding Targets
Unless you work on a commission basis, you don't really have an incentive to work harder as an employee and exceed your allotted targets. Completing your work sooner than expected means your manager may give you even more work. In other words, being a fast worker is often punished, not rewarded.
What to Do:
Ask for a pay raise if you feel it'd help compensate for your higher performance. If a raise is off the table, ask for additional benefits like paid leaves or vacation days. If that's not possible either, ask to be paid according to your direct performance instead of a fixed monthly salary. If your employer denies all of your offers, it might be time to look for a new job or pick up some freelance gigs on the side to better monetize your efforts.
Create a Better Work-Life
One-third of our life is spent working, so it's natural to want to make the best of it. Rather than quitting your job out of whim, it's a good practice to first try your best at improving your work-life at your current job.
Create a list of the top ten things that you'd change about your job, and see how many of them you have control over. It might come as a surprise to you how much you can do to create a better work environment for yourself.