Most of us spend the majority of our time going to work, working our jobs, thinking about our work, and preparing for the next work day. With such large chunk of our time and thoughts being devoted to our jobs, whether or not we’re enjoying our work will have a significant impact on your mental health. Ask yourself, do you love your job? Can you even state definitively that your like your job?
A 2013 Gallup study showed that a mere 13% of workers stated that they enjoyed their work, and that 27% had actively checked out. So if dread going to work each morning or find yourself droning off at work, you’re in fact in the strong majority. So why do people dislike their jobs?
Signs That You Hate Your Job
We wanted to explore that topic by presenting some questions for you to ask yourself. By discovering how you are enjoying your job, you’ll be able to understand how your job is affecting your mental health.
Do You Feel Valued By Your Employer?
Whether you feel valued by your employer can be observed in a variety of ways:
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- Compensation: Does the work you do result in your being fairly compensated?
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- Input: Does your boss, or other decision makers at work, ask you for ideas or input? If so, do they take it seriously?
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- Resources: Do you have the resources you require to succeed?
- Feedback: Do your supervisors give you feedback on the work you do? If so, is it a balance of constructive and positive?
If you find yourself answering no to these questions, chances are you’re not being valued at work, or at the very least, your employer is not demonstrating that they value you. Workers that don’t feel valued will likely feel lethargic at work, and may carry that home with them, affecting their overall mental health.
Are Your Applying Your Skills at Your Job
All of us have particular things that we excel at, and things we less-than excel at. Think about your daily tasks and the skills that are required for you to do them successfully. Do those skills align with the skills you are best at? There’s a correlation between enjoying your job and excelling at it. If you’re not using the skills you’re best at, you may find yourself overworking, becoming bored, or struggling to achieve success at work.
Do You See a Future in at Your Company?
Employees want to have stability at their jobs so they can financially plan their lives. They also want to feel like they have a future within their organization, so they can plan for the future. If you don’t feel stability or that you have a path for promotion at your job, that could be a cause for you not liking your job.
Disliking Your Job & Your Mental Health
If you’re among the many people who dislike their jobs, you’re increasing your chances for your feeling about your job impacting your mental health for the worse. Some people have the ability to compartmentalize work from the rest of their life. People that can do this are able to experience dissatisfaction at work without it impacting their mental health. However, many people struggle to prevent their work life from affecting their mental health.
One of the most impactful effects of disliking your job is stress. Stress can really take a toll on the human body and mind. Stress at work can be caused by a variety of ways. It can come from working too much, facing tight and unrealistic deadlines, the way that your supervisors speak to you, a perceived lack of job security, and simply through not enjoying your job. The right amount of stress at work can cause both depression and anxiety. Both depression and anxiety compromise a person’s mental health significantly. Making matters worse, elevated stress can cause heart disease and compromise your immune system.
There are also a litany of indirect effects that disliking your job can pose upon your mental health. Examples include:
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- Personal Relationships: How your days is spent at work will greatly impact the mood and attitude you have after work. Experiencing displeasure at work can cause you to become disconnected and distracted when you’re interacting with people outside of work.
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- Self Confidence: If you dislike your job and the time you spend at your job, it can lower your confidence and self-worth, which will have reverberating effects throughout the other elements of your personal and social life.
- Motivation and Passion: Having motivation and passion ties into your mental health. If your job is causing you to become apathetic and detached from your motivations and passions, it’s bound to also negatively alter your mental health.
What Should I Do If I Hate My Job?
If you’ve recognized that your job is causing issues for your mental health, take a moment to appreciate that. Identifying the factors that are affecting your mental health is often half the battle. In order to remedy the situation, you’re going to need to discover a way to eliminate the stresses and elements of your job that are causing your harm. There’s a few different ways to accomplish that.
Voice the Issues to Your Supervisor
If you haven’t already, voice your concerns with your supervisor or boss. If the elements of your job that are causing your harm are things that can be changed such as deadlines, work conditions, communication, and workload, then voicing your dissatisfaction to those in charge is a great idea. It’s quite possible that your supervisor is unaware of the harm your work is causing you, and would be happy to help create an more comfortable work environment for you. If you speak with them and they inform you that they can’t help your situation, it might be time to find a different job.
Look for a Different Job
Finding a new job is usually easier said than done. It requires time to search for job vacancies, time to prepare applications, and to attend and prepare for interviews. It also requires change, which rarely comes easy. A new job will require you to learn new things, meet new people, potentially change insurance providers, and change your commuting habits. Finding a new job can also be difficult depending on the industry you’re working in, and if one of the reasons you hate your current job is that you don’t like the work, it can be a challenge to get hired in a new industry without experience.
Despite the difficulty of a new job, if you’re unhappy at your job and your employer isn’t helping to make your experience better, it’s worth the time and struggle to find yourself another job.
Voice Your Work-Related Issues to a Mental Health Professional
Another great way to cope and manage your discontentment at work is to talk through your stresses and seek advice from a mental health professional. If you’re in the North New Jersey area, Family Psychiatry and Therapy has a dedicated and experienced staff of mental health professionals that are well equipped to assist. Contact us today to learn more about our services and to schedule an appointment.
