Why stay at a job you hate

We've all had one (or two, ok maybe more!) - the dreaded job we have come to hate. You feel sick at the thought of going to work, you can't wait for your holidays and when it gets really bad, you can't sleep at night.

So why do we do it?

Why do we stay at a job we hate? There are a multitude of reasons, from things like:

it's easy
fear of starting over
lack of confidence
family or financial commitments, and
lack of direction

What's the impact?

The problem with staying at a job we hate is that it can end up having a far worse impact than leaving would! Your self esteem suffers, your commitment to your job suffers and your stress levels or unhappiness can even leak over into your personal life. Once you start in a negative spiral it can be felt by all those around you and in a lot of instances the result is your employer terminates you before you've had a chance to make a positive change for yourself (result = even lower self esteem and NO job).

What should you do?

Firstly, you have to make a decision!! Is your unhappiness something you can fix in your current position? Is it a case of transferring to another department, or reconciling with a co-worker, or asking your boss for a performance review to make some positive changes?

Perhaps it is simply that you have done your time where you are, there may not be the growth opportunities you need, perhaps they are not willing to review your pay, or perhaps your boss is unapproachable. Now is the time to start looking for a new job. BUTwe recommend you don't just up and leave in a fit of anger, take some time to think about what it is that you want. Here are some steps we recommend to make it simple to find yourself a new job:

identify what is making you unhappy
identify what is stopping you from leaving
identify what job indeed you would like
identify what work conditions you are seeking
see our previous post on Finding your Perfect Job

and lastly, register with a job alert service.

Channel your energy into looking for a new job or a way to make your current job better and you will find that you will start to feel better! Focus on positives, what you want (instead of what you don't want) and you will find that doors will start to open, I promise!

Have you got any tips on how to handle yourself when you are in a job you hate? We'd love to hear from you!