Take a look inward if you don't like your job

By Miguel Casellas-Gil

Taylor sits in her 6 x 8 cubicle waiting for the next IT ticket to come her way and suddenly feels the walls closing in around her. She feels like she’s suffocating and is only seconds away from a panic attack, her third this month.

In her mind, it’s all because of the job. And that makes her like a lot of other people.

A 2016 survey of 8,000 workers across three continents – North America, Europe and Asia – found that 15 percent of Americans hate their jobs. That number was nearly 5 percent higher than the next closest nation of job haters.

Taylor won’t deny that she would be part of that 15 percent. Although she has taken a leave of absence because of the stress she feels from her job, and admits that it has caused problems in her personal life, she feels stuck in this job she doesn’t like, with little hope of leaving it in the near future.

While Taylor is quick to blame co-workers, her workload or what she sees as poor management, the answer to her problems might actually be closer than she thinks.

“Most people don’t want to acknowledge responsibility for their life, their story and what is not working in their life,” says Carol Talbot (www.caroltalbot.me), a keynote speaker and author of YOU the Divine Genius.

Talbot says that people who are stuck in situations they don’t like should take a step back and ask themselves “how did I create that?”

For those who are unhappy with their job situation, she says, there are other questions they also might want to start asking themselves:

• Do I hate my job or do I hate my field? Those who are frustrated with their job situation shouldn’t be so quick to look for a career change. Often jobseekers will take a position just to get their foot in the door of a certain industry or company. If this was the case, Talbot says, then perhaps it’s time to examine other positions that more closely resemble that ideal job or have a discussion with management to evaluate which position in the company is the best fit.
• What kind of work would I do for free? Perhaps music producer Quincy Jones summed it up best when he said: “The people who make it to the top – whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos – are addicted to their calling... [they] are the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid.” Those who are passionate about their work often feel as though they never worked a day in their life.
• Do I have the courage to act? Plenty of people stuck in a job they don’t like know what they want but give up quickly after a few rejections. It takes courage to make a change, particularly when it comes to a career.

“I encourage others to go beyond the boundaries of who they believe themselves to be,” Talbot says. “You are more than you think you are.”