What To Do If You Hate Your Job

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5 years ago

You’re fed up. You are DONE! You’ve tried everything but you still hate your job. You are feeling hopeless and not sure what to do. But you know you want to get up, leave, and never go back to that miserable place.

Ok, I hear ya. I’ve been there quite a few times (perhaps just this year alone 🙂 ).

I’ll get into what you should if you hate your job in a second, but — before that — there’s one thing you should not do…

And what is that, Mrs. Type A?

…make a rash decision.

It probably goes without saying but don’t get up, tell everyone you hate them, and walk out!

Well, then what should I do if I hate my job?

Ok, let’s get to it….

What To Do If You Hate Your Job

1. Diagnose the issue

First, you should consider if the reason you hate your job a short-term, situational issue such as you don’t like your co-workers or your specific work assignments? Or, is it a long-term issue in which you’re in the wrong field for you? In other words, is it the situation you’re in now or the type of work as a whole that is making you unhappy?

I encourage you to get out a pen and paper and list the reasons why you hate your job. Then assess how many of the items are short vs. long term.

Here are examples of short-term issues:

Current projects are boring
Your boss is a micromanager
Your commute is too long
You co-workers are hard to work with

These are all things that you can at least try to change by switching to a new role at your current company, or by providing feedback. Bad bosses and coworkers are painful, but people move on and they may find new roles in a year. At that point, you may end up loving your job!

Now, if your company won’t address, say, a bad boss then I think you are in the long-term camp. Why would you want to stay at a company that doesn’t take action on under-performing managers?!

Let’s look more at long-term issues:

Skills required for the job aren’t your strengths (i.e., you are careless with details and you are a CPA)
You don’t like the core responsibilities of the job (i.e., requires public speaking which makes you sick)
You are required to travel a lot for your job (i.e., sales) and you cannot accommodate that personally

2. Address short-term solutions

Even if you are facing more long-term issues (such as the line of work not being a good fit), there are still short-term changes you can make while you figure out what to do in the long-run.

The last thing you want to do is to make a big change when you haven’t had the chance to really think about it.

Here are some things to consider doing in the short-term (even if the reason you hate your job is long-term):

Take a vacation: sometimes a break gives you perspective and breaks the cycle of thinking that is making you upset
Work from home 1 day a week: getting out of the workplace may help you be less reactionary to the issues, and more productive
Talk to your peers: it may be helpful to understand what their perspective is and how long some of the issues have been going on. I would be cautious not to “complain” but rather to just ask general questions like, “has the culture change since they started?” or “what has the feedback been to leadership?” etc. This may help you understand how much longer the bad situation will go on.
Do a rotation at your current company: if you need to escape your department dynamics or you want to try a different type of job, consider a looking into a rotation at your company. About 10 years ago, I went on rotation as a sales rep. I knew I didn’t necessarily want to be in sales, but wanted to learn more about it as I thought it would be critical knowledge for a marketer. After spending 6 months doing a rotation as a sales rep, I realized I would actually enjoy it (although I didn’t end up pursuing a permanent role for other reasons)
Job search: while actually moving to a new job is something I’d consider more long-term, it may be helpful to look at job postings for roles you think you’d be interested in so that you can learn more about the job responsibilities and qualifications. If building up to that job seems difficult, then that will help you understand whether you want to make that career move.

Even if you’re facing more long-term issues, you will feel better taking some of the steps above; at least you are doing something about your issues and I think that will help (even though you have to do something still for the long-run).

Speaking of long-run…

3. Prepare to address the long-term issues

If you’re sure the issues are really larger and you need to switch careers, then here are some things to focus on:

Informational interviews: think about where you may want to go with your career, and start meeting people in that field. Ask them about their career path, what they did to succeed in the field, what education they have, what experiences were valuable, etc. See here for more information about informational interviews.
Get an internship: to try on a new field, considering getting an unpaid internship in your area of interest. This may require working nights/weekends or taking a leave of absence from your full-time job. Consider doing this, however, so you get a real-world sense of what the job you think you may want. Remember, the grass is not always greener!
Update your resume: make sure your resume is updated with most recent information. You may still need to tweak it later to fit a potential position but you can still get some of the basics done. (Check out my Create a Stand Out Resume course here!)
Research educational programs: if you, say are in a lawyer and you want to be a marketer, you may need to go back to school to get a formal education in marketing. Start researching options to get that education that fit into your lifestyle.

Hopefully, you can see that there are many things you can do when you hate your job! The only answer is not “quit.” It’s a complex situation that takes time to address effectively. Imagine how great you will feel once you embark on the journey and find out how to make the changes you need!

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