Hate Your Job? Here’s What to Do

Less than one third of workers say that they are satisfied with their job situation. If you're with the other two thirds of the populace and you are less than or totally not even a little bit satisfied with your job, here are a few pointers that may save your sanity. 

Before you pack up your stuff and leave in a cloud of flying papers, assess your situation. Why do your hate your job and want to leave? Did you ever really like it to begin with? It's easy to see only the bad stuff right now, so take a good, hard look at what you're doing. Are you angry because your work load is too high? Is your pay too low? Is it those you work with or is it your job in general? Make a list of the good points and the bad points. Try and be objective when you're doing this. Don't write "everything" on the con list and "nothing" on the pro list. Try and talk to your supervisor in a rational manner and ask them to help you out with your work load.

After you make your nice, neat objective pro and con list, try and find a few things that stand out as to why you aren't happy. Are you super stressed out? Changing jobs may not always help. Work likely isn't the only thing in your life stressing you out. It could be money or not being able to spend as much time as you like with your children. In that case, make your case for a raise or changing your work hours and see if you can do four ten hour days so you have one day off to spend with your kids.

Talk to your boss. Have a frank, honest one on one chat with them once you have some sound reasons why you're starting to hate your job. They're really the only one besides who can improve your situation and it may be easier than you think. Just be confident when you do talk to them and keep calm. Your boss is more likely to see your point of view that way.

When you're talking things over with your boss, see if there are any opportunities within the company that you may enjoy more. My best friend was just swamped at her job. She was going in early, staying late and working seven days a week just to try and keep up with the demand and from her point of view, it sounded like she was just falling further and further behind. She couldn't even afford to stay home sick there was so much work to do. Her phone was ringing off the hook and her clients were so demanding that they would yell at her if they had to leave a voice mail. Finally, she had had enough and started looking at opportunities within the company along the same lines as what she was already doing, but just with a lighter work load because even in talking to her boss, there was nothing they could do to ease the stress. She found one, spoke to her boss who gave her a sparkling recommendation and she was moved into the new department. She's making more money, working normal hours and is absolutely thriving, so it never hurts to check. The flip side to that is that maybe you're bored and you're not being challenged enough in your current position and you're looking for more work to do. Say something. It's going to make you look really responsible.

Don't act in an unprofessional manner. Try and conduct yourself in an adult way even if you decide that you are leaving so you can leave on good terms and get a good reference after you leave; or, let's say, for whatever reason, your boss decides to move some things around in an effort to get a valuable employee like you to stay, they lighten your work load and agree to what you would like to see happen. If you acted like a responsible adult, you won't be embarrassed about the way you acted. Who knows, maybe they'll even pad your pay check a little.