You hate your job and you want to quit. You want to grab your crap, stand up, knock the girl who never stops talking’s coffee off her desk, raise your arms in the air and bravely walk out the door as your coworkers applaud your long overdue exit and finally quit the job you hate.
Wait!!! Not just yet. I promise you the time will come. You’ll craft an exit strategy and then you’ll implement it and then you will quit your job. But until then…
Here are 7 things to keep in mind when you hate your job.
- You are not trapped (even though it feels like it).
Although there are days you feel like a prisoner, the reality is that you are not. You are completely free to quit your job. Even though most people would face financial consequences if they just up and quit their job, you are not literally tethered to your desk. You could leave at any moment, but you are choosing to stay. Remember this the next time you feel like your job or the company you work for is dictating your life and owns all the power. Remind yourself that you are the one in charge of your life, not your company.
- You are not your job.
Disconnect emotionally from your work while still being a productive employee. If you have the type of personality where you aren’t able to do that very easily (like myself), use that trait as further proof and motivation that you need work that you find engaging; An enjoyable job that lets you dive into work with passion, but without holding you under water with restraints. It’s a lot easier to hate your job less once you know in your heart you are on your way out.
- Being pro-active will get you closer to getting away from the job you hate- being reactive will halt that progress.
If you feel like you hate your job, believe yourself. Acknowledge that the job has served its purpose in your life and move forward with proactively planning your exit strategy. Getting completely overwhelmed and working yourself into a stressed-out mess only derails your focus and slows the progress of working toward finding a new job. How can you spare any extra energy looking for a new job when all of your energy is being completely depleted by trying to keep yourself sane at your current job?
You already know you hate it, so make every day’s purpose about planning your next steps instead of wasting precious time hating it over and over again. Don’t keep waiting for more escalated situations on days where you lose your mind drowning in grief and anxiety due to how much you hate your job.
- Treating people with respect and kindness is your social responsibility, even when you are miserable at your job.
No matter how bad your company has treated you, you aren’t allowed to take it out on other people. Even the ones that are nasty and manipulative toward you. They might even be in this with you; they might hate their job too. They just aren’t good at directing that energy somewhere productive. However, that kind of petty attitude is inexcusable to replicate. Be a good, kind person- even when you hate your job. I’ve personally dealt with this myself; it’s gross that so many people forget this and even grosser when you realize you are feeding into it and acting just like them.
- There are things you like about your job, no matter how much you hate it.
Remember them. Dwell on them. Hyperfocus on those little moments of happiness that have given you purpose at your job and use them as a crutch to get you through.
- Your mental health is more important than your job.
When I’m stressed, I’m completely capable of getting myself so upset that I start to physically externalize that angst. There have been days I get so overwhelmed that I have broken out in rashes and I feel like it’s hard to breathe. I obviously have anxiety, and that’s how my body deals with extreme levels stress. When you are at a job you hate and things are overwhelmingly busy and someone treats you poorly, it’s not difficult to start to circle the drain; certain people are capable of dealing with stress better than others. If you realistically feel like your job is driving you literally insane and you’re fearing a mental break, quit. Tell someone you trust how you feel. Have them help you figure out a quick-action exit strategy that will secure financial and medical support for yourself and any dependents you may have. Then quit your job. There are very few things in this world that are worth sacrificing your sanity. The work you do shouldn’t be one of them.
“If you realistically feel like your job is driving you literally insane and you’re fearing a mental break, quit.”
Tell someone you trust how you feel. Have them help you figure out a quick-action exit strategy that will secure financial and medical support for yourself and any dependents you may have. Then quit your job. There are very few things in this world that are worth sacrificing your sanity. The work you do shouldn’t be one of them.
7. Start viewing the time you spent at your job not as wasted time, but as your preparation phase.
You’ve learned a lot at the job you hate. You’ve learned what you will put up with and what you won’t. You were at that job for a reason. No matter how much you hated it, the circumstances of the job helped shape you into this very brave person who is ready to fly the coop and find something better. Once you start realizing that, it should help you hate your job a little less, but just enough to help you focus on going forth and starting to look for a job you don’t hate.
I know hating your job is a huge weight on your soul. Don’t freak out. Give yourself permission to leave the hopeless zone. That scary, gut-wrenching, ‘this-is-awful-what-am-I-going-to-do-about-my-job’ part of your life is over the second you decide it really is, without any doubt, time for you to quit the job you hate.
Ready to get serious about your work from anywhere job search? I whole-heartedly recommend Flexjobs, the site where I found my first freelance writing gig. There are zero scams on their site and they have their own 100% remote team, too!
Fabulous, heartfelt advice!
Thanks, Christine! I hope this post was helpful to you in some way.
I like the idea if dwelling on the good. There are a lot of good things that are popping into my head right now!
Thanks Anna. Remembering the positive has seemed to be a really helpful way for survival in these situations 😉
Wonderful advice, Lisa! I have been at the same job for nearly 23 years and it has only been in the last year that I have begun to hate it.I felt as though you wrote this post just for me; some of these points hit so close to home that I had tears.
Thank you so much for sharing that, Jenifer. The entire reason I started this blog, and this being one of my first posts, was because I felt alone in feeling that way. So, a year later, it feels incredible to know that you were able to search the web and find some solace and relief in how you are feeling.
Number 4 and 5 are amazing! We all need this from time to time.
Thank you, Dana!