What To Do If You Hate Your Job (Or Even Dislike It)

We live in the age of temporary. Things that used to last long (cars, shoes, phones, clothes, significant others) are all seemingly designed to last for a shorter and shorter amount of time. Don’t like something? You’ll get a new one, no problem. And we celebrate the new… every time! We get pumped for the new things — we tell our friends, we post about them on social media, and we show them off. And maybe we should — new is exciting. It always has been and likely always will be.

But the grass is not always greener on the other side. New doesn’t solve everything — and to take it a step further, new can make things worse. Instead of fixing things and making them better, running and starting anew without any real reflection doesn’t always move you forward. And I write about this because of a crazy misconception about the job market for millennials. Working in the career services game, I’m of course writing about the widely spread idea that one is supposed to change jobs every few years and that it makes one more marketable. “You’ve seen more workplaces, work cultures, and processes, so you’re a bigger asset to our company,” they say. Don’t like your job? You’ll be advised to “Find a new one.”

Have you ever complained about your job to your friends? Maybe complained about your mean boss? Perhaps your compensation? It’s okay, you can say yes. You know who else says yes? Your friends and family. Has there ever been a situation in life where you’ve complained about your work and your loved ones say, “Maybe you should try harder at your job” or “Hey, your boss isn’t so bad”? Of course, it hasn’t. Your friends and family aren’t at work with you, so they only get the lowlights and your complaints. Their support isn’t guidance, it’s agreement and affirmation.

And it’s unlike any other kind of conflict in life! If you’re upset with your girlfriend, a friend might say “Maybe you should apologize, you love your girlfriend.” Upset with your parents? “They want what’s best for you.” But your career is the one, depersonalized relationship in your life that never receives any recourse. Any time you say something bad about your job, no one ever disputes you for leaving it or changing it. That’s odd to me, and it should be odd to you. Of the 168 hours in a week, you sleep about 7 hours on average (49 total), work around 40, and have only about 70 hours left for the rest of your time. When you think about it, that 40 hours is a massive chunk of your week, but we paradoxically try to distance ourselves from it as often as we can.

Don’t talk about work too much. Don’t work on your vacation. Don’t bring work home. Don’t stress about work, there will always be more work. Don’t care so much about work. These are modern-day axioms that we all get behind and no one ever disagrees with.

What I’m getting at is that you’re the only real advocate for your career. And your career is something that will equally advocate for you. And when things go wrong in your career, they’re not a pair of shoes, a car, or a cell phone. You don’t just hop jobs without any kind of plan or thought on what the consequences could be. Put yourself in a hiring manager’s shoes, would you really want to hire someone with 3 jobs in 3 years? There are exceptions to everything. However, hopping jobs can be devastating for career growth. You don’t learn nearly as much about a field by sampling several companies just like you don’t learn anything from books just by reading the summaries.

So, before you leave your job and end up doing some heavy damage to your resume, let me give you some advice on what you can do at your job to improve your situation. Enjoy these helpful tips!

1: Stop Whining, Keep Your Head Down, And Focus On Yourself

This is a big one. So often we find ourselves caught in the doldrums of workplace drama and office politics. We involve ourselves in other people’s problems that they then become our problems. Steve hates his manager because he gets micromanaged like a mug. Steve’s your boy, so you start standing up for him and start giving his manager some attitude as well. Now you’re on Steve’s manager’s shit list and he starts thinking you’re insubordinate. Now Steve’s manager isn’t really considering you for promotion or management because you have an attitude problem.

Maybe another time, you and Steve are in a similar position, and from what you can tell, your performance is way better than his. All of a sudden, Steve gets a raise. Now you get pissed and complain that you didn’t get a raise. “Why did Steve get a raise and not me!” you proclaim. Well unbeknownst to you, Steve’s been working on a lot of projects outside of work, and your complaints start stirring up drama and a toxic workplace culture. You get fired and have to live in the streets.

These two scenarios aren’t really about Steve, they’re about you. If you focus on your job and your job only, you don’t really become a problem for the management team. And if you want to succeed at your job, you can’t really become a problem for your management team.

2: Consider Alternatives Within The Organization

While the first tip is a preventative measure, this is a reactive measure. Maybe you are genuinely disenchanted with your role. Is it the job? Is it you? Maybe you aren’t great at sales and want to move into HR. Is it a possibility you’ve explored? Try to get in on some cross-functional projects where you can spend time in other departments. Companies would love to hire someone internally for a position over bringing someone new in. It’s not always going to be an option, but it’s certainly something worth exploring before jumping ship.

3: Be Proactive And Ask For Critical Feedback And Adhere To It

It’s never easy hearing when you suck at something, but it’s always easier when you can get in front of it. Why wait for a bad performance review when your proactivity in trying to improve could be perceived as a positive? That way, you start to receive support and change the conversation a bit from discipline, into construction. If you’re intensely good at your job, it’s extremely less likely that you’ll want to leave it.

4: Work Out Plans, Don’t Just Ask For Things

If you don’t like your compensation, come up with a strategy for making more money. Show your employer with your work, not your words. Having a conversation with your manager or HR about what you can do to take the next step is a lot easier than just saying “I feel I should be paid more.” It gives you something to build on and puts your management team into a position where they have to pull through on their promises and working with you.

5: Take On A Mentor

Sometimes, you need someone outside of your direct manager to advise you on what you can do to improve your standing within the organization. Mentorship is a flattering proposition, and if you find a senior member within a company whom would be willing to teach you best practices for doing your job within your organization. Working with a mentor would give you something to look forward to.

Building a career is not easy, but if you do these five things, you’ll find that work is not so bad, and you can actually build a pretty nice life for yourself. Having cultivated something great with your career, and not just disregarding it and throwing it away, will bring far more rewards than you could imagine. And who doesn’t want that?