As a Human Resources professional, one of the questions that some people often ask me is:” What should I do if I hate my job and what should i do?”. By any yardstick, this isn’t an easy question to answer for several reasons.You would have definitely applied for the job.
At the time of application, you would have imagined this is your dream job. And you exerted every effort to crack the interview and land that job, with your own merit.
Therefore, the question is, what went wrong that makes you hate the very same job that you once believed would open the doors to your career? Is there something wrong with the employer?
Or, are we at fault? Furthermore, is it the inherent problem with the employer as well as us that makes us think of “Why I hate my job so much”?
These are some questions that I will be answering in this article about while discussing the top seven things that you can do immediately, should you find yourself hating your current job.
Before discussing what should you do if you hate your job, here’re some top reasons why you might be disliking your current employment.
Reasons Why People Hate Jobs
Actually, there’re several reasons why people hate their current jobs. If you’re one of them, maybe these could be some of the reasons. I’m listing the topmost reasons why people hate their jobs and what to do when you hate your job?
1. Overwork
Overwork ranks as the topmost reason why people hate their current jobs. Understandably, you would be hardworking and giving the best of your skills and efforts to your employer. Unfortunately, our skills and efforts sometimes work against us because the employer keeps on overloading us with more and more work.
If this is the reason, you might be overworking. Overwork affects the overall quality of life because you can’t get adequate time for recreation and family. Therefore, you could be hating your job due to overwork.
While the employer is definitely at fault here for overloading you with work, we have to do some introspection ourselves. In most cases, the employee is also at fault for overworking.
You might be taking on more responsibilities and work than you can manage during an eight-hour working day and sometimes, ending up working extra, including from home.
2. Lack of Appreciation
Lack of appreciation from the employer is the second biggest reason and answer to the question “you hate your job and want to quit”. That’s because you would be giving the best to the company to help it prosper and grow.
However, all your efforts don’t get any appreciation, though your contributions towards the organization’s business growth and other fields is very significant and noticeable.
Wanting appreciation is basic part of the human nature. It’s a psychological need of humans. And when appreciation for efforts doesn’t come, we start hating our jobs.
Appreciation for our work can come in many forms. An employer might simply pat you on the back and congratulate you for the achievement or it could translate as a promotion or salary hike.
Some organizations have the system of naming an employee that’s done outstanding work as an ‘employee of the month’. If you’re unhappy with the job because of lack of appreciation, it’s clearly the employer’s fault.
3. No Training for Employees
Often, employers fail to provide training that would help employees to fine-tune own skills while acquiring newer ones that’re necessary for the job.
That’s because no employee wants their skills to go redundant in the job market. When such training from employers isn’t available, employees feel unhappy.
As we’re all aware, technologies are advancing almost daily. This means, employees also need to remain updated about these technologies to work efficiently.
Training from employers helps build loyalty towards the organization and is known to reduce employee attrition rates.
However, the lack of training usually leads to disgruntlement and employees begin hating their jobs. That’s because they know they’ll be unfit to work for other companies, if necessary for any reason.
Usually, this is the fault of the employer. At the same time, employees are also partly at fault. That’s because if you’re serious about your career, you would find online training courses and do them in spare time to upgrade your skills.
4. Poor Salary
Poor salary also ranks as the greatest reasons for hating your job. You could be doing all the work to the satisfaction of your bosses.
Yet, your pay doesn’t match your efforts, academic qualifications, experience and skills. To add to that, other persons working with a different employer are drawing significantly more salaries that you.
Obviously, this would make you hate your new job as well. And sometimes, we need the job because there might be no other vacancies or options available.
In the first place, most jobseekers fail to bargain for their salary and perks, which leads to this situation. Ideally, the job interview is the best opportunity to ask for a higher salary and perks than what an employer is offering.
Unfortunately, most candidates fail to use this chance and instead, accept what the employer offers. It’s always good to know the median salary for a person with your experience, qualifications and skills before appearing for an interview.
5. Bad Working Conditions
Bad working conditions can mean anything from uncooperative colleagues to a bad boss, sexual harassment at workplace, discrimination, among others.
These factors can make you hate even a dream job. You might be getting the best possible salary and might even believe that you have a future in that organization.
However, such factors can prove detrimental to your growth and you might feel you’re working there only for the salary but without actually wanting to stay at that post.
As a matter of fact, you might even be desperate to leave the organization if you get even a smaller salary, due to poor working conditions.
Generally, poor working conditions occur when a management of the organization doesn’t pay attention to all kinds of issues and are indifferent to such problems. That could occur due to any number of reasons. There’re no reasons why anyone should continue working in poor conditions.
I Hate My Job – 7 Things to Do Immediately
There’re several more reasons why you might hate your job. And if that’s indeed the case, here’re the top seven things that you should do immediately. Try using these time-tested and proven tips that I often provide to those who ask me.
1. Identify the Problem
Often, many people hate their job or do it without much zest because they’re unaware about where the problem lies. In most of the cases, there could be absolutely no reason to hate the job but only some psychological feeling.
This happens due to stress. There’re two kinds of stress- one is the negative stress that can lead to depression and other psychiatric disorders. The other is eustress, which is positive and helps us to compete and do our work efficiently.
Many times, it becomes difficult for us to distinguish between the two. Therefore, we end up mistaking eustress or positive stress as negative and start hating the job. If that’s your case too, find out why you’re mistaking eustress to be negative stress.
At the same time, if stress isn’t your problem, identify the reasons why you hate your job. I’ve already listed the top five causes why people sometimes hate their jobs. It’s quite likely that you fall into any of these five categories.
2. Talk to Your Boss
Talking to your boss to tell that you hate the job can sound pretty scary. Actually, you don’t need to put it that way. Once you identify the reasons why you hate the job, the best thing to actually do is talk with your boss or immediate seniors about the reasons.
Very often, bosses themselves are unaware about working conditions or poor pay and other such things. Therefore, giving them an opportunity to address the reasons why you hate the job is only a fair thing to do.
Giving your bosses the opportunity to address your problems can actually help your colleagues and you. It’s quite likely that your boss will realize that something is indeed wrong in the organization and act to solve such issues.
There’s actually no point in hiding the fact that you hate the job from your boss. Because if you conceal your hate, the boss would consider that everything is fine and the problem would remain unresolved.
3. Introspection
Check whether something is wrong in the way you work. It’s quite likely that you don’t possess the skills to perform the role properly. Or maybe you’re overqualified for the job. There could also be situations where you’re not performing your tasks to the satisfaction of your employer.
Introspection helps you identify own inherent problems at work that makes us hate the job. There’re often times when we look for scapegoats to blame for our own hate of the job or cover up own shortcomings. That’s very wrong.
Furthermore, doing some introspection also allows us to patch up own grey areas and work better. By doing so, you might soon find that the job you hated once is now the job that you love. Lack of skills and experience often makes us hate a job.
You can do some introspection by doing the simple SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. Here I would recommend you do a SWOT analysis at leisure because we’re often blind to our own faults.
Therefore, be honest with yourself while doing such an analysis. There would definitely be occasions when you would be shocked by your own shortcomings and find that blaming others is useless when the real fault lies within us.
4. Check Own Expectations
Are your own expectations realistic and in sync with the job you’re doing, the organization where you’re working and their policies and in line with your academic qualifications, skills and experience? If your expectations are too high and not in line with these, you would definitely end up hating your job.
Often, we have expectations from our job that don’t match a lot of things. This translates as disgruntlement with the employer and eventually, hate for the job. Usually, this happens when our expectations from the job and the employer are too high and also unrealistic.
Job satisfaction comes when our own expectations are in sync with our experience, qualifications and skills as well as the employer’s policies. Having ambitions is normal because all of us aim for growth. However, having unrealistic ambitions can lead to hate for the job.
Therefore, I suggest you take an honest inventory to find if your expectations are indeed too high. And if that’s the case, you can lower your expectations to be in sync with the things I mention above.
5. Find Your Net Worth
If you hate your job, one thing you could do is find your net worth. There’re several net worth calculators available for free online, which you can use. Net worth means the money you have in your bank, investments and assets.
Should you find that your net worth is growing upwards, there’s no reason to hate the job as such. The problem could be with you colleagues or a bad boss.
These are problems that you can easily counter. Remember, if you’re moving upwards financially, it’s a good sign. It means that the organization appreciates your efforts and is rewarding you through salary rises and extra perks.
After all, we work for money and to have enough savings and investments. If your financial goals are being fulfilled, there’re no reasons as such to hate the job. And other problems that you might be facing at work can be resolved easily.
6. Check Career Graph
There’re times when we have outgrown an employer. Meaning, we have achieved the highest possible position that our education, skills and experience would get, through our efforts with the employer. And there’s no more scope for further career growth.
In such cases, check your career graph. If you find that there’re no more opportunities for career growth, there’re only two things that you could do.
One of them is obvious- leave the job and seek fresh opportunities elsewhere in places where your career can grow further. The other is being content with what you have, if the pay and perks are right enough.
Remember, once you attain a certain level of seniority, the number of vacancies that you find become lesser and lesser. It’s easier to find jobs at junior levels than at middle or senior management positions.
Therefore, consider this fact before you decide to look for jobs elsewhere. You might not be able to find one easily if you’re in mid-level or senior level positions.
7. Start Freelancing
This is a career advise that very few people might actually give you. If you hate your job, the best thing to do right away is to start freelancing. That way, you’re your own boss and can work on your own terms and conditions.
Freelancers are actually independent contractors that work for multiple buyers of their work. They work on flexible hours and actually earn much more than their office going counterparts.
As a matter of fact, the number of freelancers in America is steadily growing. It is estimated that by the year 2025, about 53 percent of the American working population would be freelancers. By mid-2021, we already have about 48 percent of the workforce working as freelancers.
However, I wouldn’t recommend you to leave the job you hate and start freelancing immediately. Instead, entering the freelance work market is a gradual process.
You have to start by freelancing during your spare time while you hold a regular paying job. And once you start earning much more than a fixed job, you can graduate as fulltime freelancer on various websites like UpWork, Fiverr etc.
In Conclusion
Everyone hates their job at some point in their career so instead of thinking that “I hate my job and want to quit” Think of various reason for it. Therefore, if you hate your job, it’s nothing unusual or abnormal.
You can analyze why you hate the job using the tips that I’ve provided above and find who’s at fault for the situation. Often, the tendency is to blame others for our hatred of a job though the fault could lie with us.
Proper analysis of reasons why you hate a specific job will help you to overcome this feeling and give you a new direction for your career. Therefore, follow the seven steps I mention on what you can do immediately if you hate your job.