Taylor sits in her 6 x 8 cubicle waiting for the next IT ticket to come her way and suddenly feels the walls closing in around her. She feels like she’s suffocating.
She’s only a few seconds away from a panic attack, her third this month.
In her mind, it’s all because of her job. That belief makes Taylor like many other people who don’t like their jobs either.
A survey of 8,000 workers across three continents—North America, Europe and Asia—found that 15 percent of Americans hate their jobs. That number was nearly 5 percent higher than the next closest nation of job haters.
Taylor won’t deny that she would be part of that 15 percent. Although she has taken a leave of absence because of the stress she feels from her job, she and admits that her job has caused problems in her personal life, she feels stuck in a job she doesn’t like, with little hope of leaving it in the near future.
While Taylor is quick to blame co-workers, her workload, or what she sees as poor management, the answer to her problems might actually be closer than she thinks.
Most people don’t want to acknowledge responsibility for their life, their story and what is not working in their life.
Look inward to find the answer
People who are stuck in situations they don’t like should take a step back and ask themselves, “how did I create that?”
For those who are unhappy with their job situation, there are some questions they need to start asking themselves:
- Do I hate my job, or do I hate my field?
Those who are frustrated with their job situation shouldn’t be so quick to look for a career change. Often jobseekers will take a position just to get their foot in the door of a certain industry or company. Perhaps it’s time for you to examine other positions that more closely resemble that ideal job or have a discussion with management to evaluate which position in the company is the best fit.
- What kind of work would I do for free?
Perhaps music producer Quincy Jones summed it up best when he said: “The people who make it to the top, whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos, are addicted to their calling. They’re the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid.” People who are passionate about their work often feel as though they never worked a day in their life.
- Do I have the courage to act?
Plenty of people stuck in a job they don’t like know what they want but give up quickly after a few rejections. It takes courage to make a change, particularly when it comes to a career.
I encourage you to go beyond the boundaries of who you believe yourself to be. If you do, you’ll discover that you’re more than you think you are.
It is necessary…for a man to go away by himself, to sit on a rock and ask, ‘Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?’ ~Carl Sandburg
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Today’s LeadBIG contributor, Carol Talbot, is an author and keynote speaker who has delivered inspiring messages to corporations and conferences in more than 20 countries. She is a Certified Master Trainer of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and a Master Firewalk Instructor who fires up teams and gets them to walk across burning hot coals.
Image credit before quote added: Pixabay
