Professional Irritations

Posted by fxckfeelings on September 3, 2020

Loving your work is nice when it happens, but when it comes to professional labor, the intended fulfillment is financial, not spiritual, or emotional; if it were always fun, worthy, and challenge-free, they wouldn’t call it work. There are a lot more important things than loving your work, like feeding your family and keeping the lights on. So if you really hate your job and want to leave, think hard about what you hate exactly and how/whether it could truly be better elsewhere. It’s all-too-normal to hate your job, but before you leave make sure it’s the job you hate and not work in general. 
-Dr. Lastname

I’m in my 20s and have started to loathe my job at a very big company. My negative feelings aren’t arbitrary; my job has become very clerical and is dedicated to trying to influence a large bureaucracy with regards to projects I consider unambitious, in which I have little ownership or personal interest. I have nothing against making money or large organizations but want to work on problems that I find interesting and potentially meaningful. I think I appreciate that every path in life has some dirty work. But my sense is that my current path has more dirty work than it makes sense to accept and that the end of my current path is not one I care to reach. Even though I believe that I have logical reasons for wanting out and have made practical yet worthy plans for the next stage in my life, however, I still worry that I’m making an overly emotional decision fueled by frustration and unreasonable expectations. I don’t want to have to quit because I bought too much into feelings, or because I was a dumb millennial who thought the world would be handed to them on a silver plate after graduating from an elite college. My goal is to know that I’m making the right choice for the right (unemotional) reasons. 

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There’s no reason to doubt your reasons for quitting a job if you’ve first done a reasonable market survey of your opportunities and the risks and benefits of leaving versus staying. You know there are certain things you hate about your current job and now you know to avoid them as you search for your next gig.

First, however, consider your own reasons for seeking work, beginning with how much you need the money to support yourself and your family, require flexible hours to take care of family and medical needs, and can afford the commute. It’s true, a job that fulfills your brain and personal goals are important, but not so much if it doesn’t put food on the table or fill your bank account. 

While some people would say you should settle for nothing less than an emotionally fulfilling job, or that work should feel like fun, those are people who are blessed with a large inheritance and/or a benign kind of masochism that makes busting your ass pleasurable. Otherwise, survival is your first need and motivation, and enjoyment comes from not being hungry, wet, or cold and ensuring likewise for those you love.

Then decide whether you’re likely to do better with another job and review your reasoning with a head-hunter or someone you trust. As you say, you don’t want to leave a job that’s irritating and boring and then find there’s no better way to make a living and you’re running out of dough. If your reasoning checks out, survey the market to see what’s available and whether you can do better elsewhere. Prepare questions that might tell you whether a job offers a better opportunity to do meaningful things, working with people you respect. 

If you can’t find a better job, think about the skills and credentials you could acquire that might make you more employable and improve your value. Remember, your value doesn’t just depend on knowing fancy skills; it may be enhanced more by your ability and willingness to do dirty work that others hate. No one craves the job of shoveling shit, but the shit shoveler’s also the last guy to get fired.

Making a good management decision about your work requires you to acknowledge negative feelings while weighing them against whatever other factors you think are important. Then you’re bound to make a good decision, however, it turns out, whether or not a shovel is involved.

And if there’s no better way to make a living, at least for the time being, don’t let boredom or humiliation make you feel like a failure. Putting up with a job that sucks, even if you’re doing it for a good cause, is hard to do. It won’t make you happy, but it should make you both proud and motivated to keep up your search. 

STATEMENT:

“My job sucks but, as much as I hate it, I’m determined to do what I think is necessary and evaluate alternatives carefully in terms of facts, not feelings or appearances. Meanwhile, I’m proud of my ability to do a good day’s work to put food on the table, and all the prouder when it sucks and I know I will do it anyway if I think it needs to be done.”