What To Do About Feelings of Job Dissatisfaction
Job Dissatisfaction
This post might benefit you if you:
Feel restless or like you're in a slump at your current job
Are considering a job or career change
Aren't sure whether you need to change your job or your attitude
It's amazing how the Universe works. I spent the last couple of days wondering what to write about next and then a friend reached out to me and said that he was considering a job change. As I thought about what direction to point him in, I realized I'd had similar conversations with a few other people in the last week. And as I was replying to his message, I realized I knew what to write next.
If we're lucky, we start a new job filled with excitement and high hopes for what we're going to accomplish. Especially for those who have established a career and have worked their way into greater responsibility and influence, there is a certain amount of pride that comes with a job well done. And for many, there is "the perfect amount of stress" that drives us to get creative with our problem-solving and passionate about making improvements.
But if you've had a job for longer than a few years, there is a good chance that you've had a day, week, month, or even year where you felt dissatisfied with it for one reason or another. How do you know if it's just a rough patch that will pass, or if it's symptomatic of a larger problem? How do you know when to weather the storm or start building a ship to get off the island?
Temporary Problems
In my view, there are two types of job problems: 1) those that are temporary (i.e., once resolved they will be unlikely to resurface), and 2) those that are more deeply rooted.
Temporary problems imply that they have an end which means that you attempt to solve them through your actions or attitude, or they may simply resolve with the passage of time. These types of problems, once addressed, may result in your normal feelings of job satisfaction returning.
Here are a handful of examples (Note: this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, nor is it meant to minimize these challenges):
A high-stress, time-sensitive project or deadline.
Once the project is over, or the deadline has passed, it's likely that your level of happiness will improve.
A boring project.
Companies have an endless supply of problems to solve, and opportunities to innovate. Consider taking the initiative and offering to take on a project that will excite or challenge you to create something new.
If that doesn't work, the boring project will eventually come to an end so that you can go on to work on more interesting things.
A boss who doesn't "get you."
Perhaps it's time for a candid conversation about your goals and motivations to help your boss better understand you.
An annoying co-worker.
How you react to this person is entirely up to you.
Maybe try to understand their motivations or what's causing their irritability. It's amazing what can happen when you take the time to listen.
If changing how you interact with them doesn't work, maybe you can find a way to work on different projects.
I realize that the above bullet points completely oversimplify what can often be highly complex and political situations at work. However, my point is that there are problems that can be solved through some form of action or that will eventually end because of the impermanence of the project.
Deeper Issues
If you address the temporary problems and the dissatisfaction remains, or if you feel that there is something deeper underlying your unhappiness at work, your next step may be unclear. You may have tried to take on new projects, attempted to befriend that annoying co-worker, or maybe you just have way too much crap on your plate, and there is no end in sight. If the work stress isn't temporary or, alternatively, if you have zero stress but are also not feeling a sense of accomplishment from your work, then there may be a more complex issue at hand.
Feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction with our work are wired into our makeup as humans. The reason we equate job dissatisfaction with unhappiness is that we need to feel like we're achieving our potential (see the Maslow's hierarchy of needs). However, we often assume that to feel like we're accomplishing something meaningful, we need to be doing what we love.
Doing What You Love
For the longest time, I thought that only the luckiest people in the world got to do what the loved for a living. Only the highest tiers of artists, writers, musicians, athletes, and adventurers got to live their dreams each day and get paid handsomely to do it. I have always loved writing but never really considered a full-blown career as a writer, not because I didn't have a passion for it, but because I knew it wouldn't pay the bills right away. It took me a long time to understand that just because you want to create a comfortable life for yourself doesn't mean you have to give up doing what you love.
It wasn't until I read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Gilbert, that I finally understood the difference between a Hobby, Job, Career, and Vocation.
I highly recommend that you take 9 minutes and 43 seconds to watch this video where she explains all four, but if you don't have the time or can't watch right now, scroll down to my summary.
https://youtu.be/0g7ARarFNnw
Hobbies, Jobs, Careers, and Vocations
Here's a very brief summary of how Elizabeth Gilbert explains each of these four words:
Hobby:
Something you do purely for pleasure, to prove that you are not just going through the motions of life.
There are no stakes; you're not making any real money or a living from this.
You just do it because it's fun or enjoyable.
It's nice to have but not required.
Job:
This is the only one of the four that you HAVE to have.
There is a material world, and there is a spiritual/artistic world, and they don't always intersect; a job allows you to live in the material world.
You don't have to love it; it doesn't have to be awesome; it just needs to pay the bills.
Your job doesn't have to be your whole life.
Career:
Another thing you do not have to have.
A career is a job that you are passionate about and that you love.
You're willing to make sacrifices and work those extra hours when needed.
You believe in the mission of your career and pursue it with commitment.
You should either love your career or not have one; if you don't love it, just get a job.
Vocation:
A calling, a divine invitation to pursue your purpose, and to use your talents and gifts to contribute to the world.
The highest possible pursuit.
No one can give it to you, and no one can take it away from you (someone can take your job or career).
You are compelled to do it regardless of whether it pays you.
It doesn't matter what comes of it; you would do it even if there were no longer a need for it in the world.
Career Value Pillars
Job/Career Value Pillars
Now assuming that we're talking about satisfaction with either a job or career, I believe that satisfaction rests on a series of pillars much the same way that pillars hold up a building. They are the values we hold in importance which, if removed, would cause our structure to collapse.
Here are my four job/career pillars:
People: I need to really like working with the people I spend the majority of my week with. My current job can get very busy and comes with its fair share of stress, but it's all easy to handle because I genuinely enjoy spending time with my coworkers. Not only do they inspire me to do my job to the best of my ability, but we also share in a lot of laughter at work. I'm so fortunate in this arena that I spend a lot of time with my coworkers outside of the normal 9-5. I even travel with them.
Value: I need to feel like I am adding value (i.e., that my skills are helping improve the company in some way) but also that the job is giving something valuable back to me (e.g., I'm learning new things every day or at least every week). The minute I feel like I'm no longer contributing in a meaningful way or that I've stopped learning, I begin to evaluate my circumstances to see what needs to be changed.
Appreciation: It's important that I feel appreciated and fairly compensated for my work. I think this goes without saying for most people but if it's important to you, I'd call it out as one of your pillars.
Commute Time: I've lived in LA for 20 years and for over half of my career, I had a really long commute to work (my shortest commute was 45min one-way; longest was 90min one-way). Today it takes me 3 minutes to walk to work, and it is heaven. My stress levels are much lower because I don't have to deal with LA traffic and I have so much more time to spend on other things (like writing blog posts). I wouldn't have it any other way. If for some reason my team had to move to a new location, I'd either have to move close to the new office or consider other job options.
Evaluation
Because I'm clear on my four pillars, it makes two things easy for me. For one, when I'm going through an extremely busy or stressful time, it helps to pause and acknowledge that my four pillars remain strong and sturdy. When I think of the amazing people I work with and the fact that I really enjoy what I do, I know that things will get back to normal soon because my problems are temporary. Second, I know that if one of my pillars were to weaken or disappear, it would be a cause to evaluate my situation and consider a job change. But until that situation occurs, I'm very happy where I am.
I feel incredibly lucky that my pillars have remained steady over the last several years and it gives me a lot of comfort knowing that my "why" for being there is clear.
A Next Step
If you're feeling dissatisfied with your current job or career, consider these next steps:
Determine whether your problems are temporary or more deeply rooted.
If they're temporary and you can take action to improve them, come up with a list of 2-3 things you can change or influence to make them better.
If they're deeper, then consider whether the level of importance you are placing on your job or career is because of lack of clarity on the difference between hobbies, jobs, careers, and vocations. Remember that you should absolutely do what you love, but it doesn't necessarily have to be your job.
Define your Job/Career Value Pillars and use them as a measure for whether you want to stay where you are or begin exploring new opportunities.
I hope this post was helpful to anyone who might be feeling uncertain about their current job and that it has provided a new perspective or lens in which to view your path forward.