Anoop Verma
If you dislike your job, going to office can be a big challenge. But when the economy is not doing well and the jobs market is saturated, all employees tend to loose bargaining power, and you have to stick with a job that you dislike. After all, not everyone can be lucky enough to get paid for what they like to do, majority of the people have to remain content with only getting paid so that they can afford to do whatever they like doing during the holidays.
It is possible that you are facing a problems simply because the job is inherently unsuitable for you, but your problems can also be due to insufficient salary, bad manager or personal issues. Perhaps the whole environment in the office is toxic; it is difficult to survive there. However, despite all the problems that you face, you can’t afford to move out until you have a new position. You have to keep working in a proper manner in order to safeguard your reputation as a professional. If you let your dislike of the job affect your performance in office, your long-term career prospects might get harmed.
So what can you do about it? Here is a list of seven strategies for surviving in a job that you dislike:
Bring yourself to office
No, bunking office is not the answer. In a physical sense, you might already be doing it. But you also need to do it in a creative and psychological sense. When you are at office, the least you can do is pretend that you are talking interest in the job that you are doing. You can’t afford to put up an air of being cut-off or aloof from all that is going around you. You can also try to bring something extra to your job so that it does not seem too boring or mundane.
Don’t throw a tantrum
Curb any desire of ranting, hollering or raving, while you are in office or in the company of your colleagues. You have to keep in mind that your colleagues at office would be having their own problems, so they would hardly be interested in knowing just how bad you are feeling. You can certainly not complain to your co-workers, as they might be part of the problem. Perhaps you can go to a website like http://www.jobitorial.com/ and vent your real feelings.
Get a perspective
It is easy to get trapped into the feeling that you might never be get out of the present position, but you need to remind yourself that nothing in life is permanent. Any given day is just one day in your life. Today might seem really problematic due to all sorts of reasons, but in all likelihood you won’t even remember about this day few days from today. Tomorrow is another day and it might bring better experiences. If you take a holistic view of life, the realisation will dawn that the bad phase that you are going through is nothing more than a temporary blip.
There is life outside office
The last thing that you want to do is get obsessed with the bad things that you are experiencing in office. Eight hours of your day is spent in office, and eight hours are for sleeping. So there are about eight hours everyday that you can give to yourself, but if you use this eight hours to constantly brood over how bad your job is then, you will fail to have any relaxation and your problems will surely get aggravated. You have to release tension by spending time with family and friends or doing something that you really like doing.
Be a better worker
You may not be happy at work, but that does not mean that you are entitled to waste your office hours. If you concentrate on doing your job, you will be enhancing your skills, and that will help you at the time when you start applying for other jobs. If the company is offering them, you should take advantage of the training programmes. You can also try to convince your manager that you should be allowed to leave early at least once a week so that you can attend a class at a local community college. Such training will make you more valuable for future employers.
Develop a plan
It is possible that it may take lot of time for you to find a new job. Till that time you have to survive in the present job. So it is in your interests to ensure that the time you spend in the present position is as interesting as it can be. You have to be proactive in brainstorming with your trusted friends and colleagues about the ways by which you can improve your job profile. Even the Human Resource Department at office can be helpful in resolving some of the problems that you might be facing.
Take care of your health
A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. You should not let your feelings about the job come in the way of taking care of your physical and mental needs. You should develop a exercise regimen that you can do three or four times every week. The food that you eat has to healthy and you should set some time aside for relaxing.
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