The “great resignation” is upon us, and work is being re-classified and re-prioritized by hundreds of thousands of people. As an employee, it is time to pause and ask yourself “Is it my time to jump and find something fresh and new?”.
Often the trouble with trying to decide if you stay or if you go, is you don’t recognize what your goal is. Why are you leaving and what are you wanting to change? When your job is draining, how do you stop the job drain?
The average age a person changes careers is 39 and by that time has held somewhere around 8 different jobs. So although we will change jobs almost a dozen times in our life, we will see a career pivot only once or twice. That’s a lot of change when you think about it. And one of the big drivers of a job or career change is not being satisfied with your current work.(according to these recent stats) But what does “unsatified” represent? When you jump without knowing what you, how will you know where you will land will make you any happier.
Knowing what you want is key to making a successful career pivot. But when your current job is beating you up, it is hard to find the time, money, and energy you need to figure it all out.
Job searching is draining and can be a full-time job on its own. Before you jump in, take a look at the top 5 ways to stop your job from draining you.
5 Tips to Stop The Job Drain
1. Find your real frustrations
We usually know we’re frustrated but we often don’t pause to figure out the core of the frustration. Frustration is an instant emotion and will surface well before the root cause. If you’re frustrated because you don’t have enough time, underneath you might feel hurt and disrespected. It is easier to act on the root causes than it is to act on the immediate frustration.
2. Is it really that bad?
The answer sometimes is – hell yeah!! And sometimes the answer is “not really”. Dig in and challenge your negativity bias. Start reflecting throughout the day on what is working and what isn’t. We forget all the small wins and the things which are working well because our brains stick with the bad stuff.
3. Where are you in your journey?
Prior when asked about my 5 year plan I would laugh and then shrug it off. “Who needs a plan? I’m happy to see where things go.” But be cautious! There’s a difference between not attaching to the outcome and roaming around lost at sea. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? And if that is too hard, start backwards and plot your journey from 5 years ago until now? What do you see about where you’re going? How do you feel about that? And once you know a little bit about your journey, can you find things at work that are more in alignment?
4. What are you curious about?
Many companies and organizations offer tuition breaks or free training. Now is the time to take advantage of what the company has to offer. See if there are places and spaces you are curious to explore. How can learning something new add a new breathe of fresh air into some tired old sails?
5. Talk about it
More often than not, sitting and stew about things never changing or about opportunities passing you by, does nothing to create change. Once you are clear in what you’re missing, have a conversation with your leader or mentor. Let them know you are disengaging and are looking to re-light the fire. So often, I see people leave companies that would have bent over backwards for them. They leave and end up still dissatisfied.
Sometimes you may find you are in the right place but you’re doing the wrong thing.
Or you’re doing the right thing at the wrong place. Or maybe you need to leave and try something completely new.
Whichever it is, you can be assured the feeling comes from a knowing. When you have that knowledge, work won’t feel so draining.
You will find time opens up to be able to breath a little easier while you look for something to put wind in your sails.
Having trouble getting started? Book a free coaching call to get you to the starting line.