Half of all Americans are unhappy in their jobs
10/10/09 12:30 PM Filed in: Working
in corporate America
If you number yourself among the unhappy 50%, there may be several reasons. Perhaps you feel as if something is missing from your work life. Maybe you initially found a thrill in the fast pace but now feel burned out. Since, on average, people devote more than 100,000 hours to their jobs throughout their lives, shouldn’t work be fulfilling? Yet, even if you dislike your job, walking away from a steady income and a package of benefits is scary. However, your choices are not limited to a lifetime of corporate drudgery versus a bunk in the poorhouse. If you are unhappy, you can take control of your career and make a change without risking your financial security.
Work dissatisfaction can affect your quality of life and cause problems such as ulcers, anxiety and high blood pressure.
You Know You Hate Your Job If...
Six factors commonly cause “corporate malaise”:
1. “Corporate Burnout” – Long hours, high stress levels and massive workloads all contribute to the mental and physical exhaustion you feel when you’re overworked.
2. “Terminal Boredom” – Working hard on projects that don’t interest and engage you compounds the problems of working too hard. Repetition and a lack of challenges and learning opportunities can contribute to that awful mind-numbing feeling.
3. “Square Peg Syndrome” – Layers of bureaucracy, interoffice politicking and conformist cultures are often the nature of the corporate beast. Creative spirits may find this environment stifling.
4. “Balance Disorder” – Recruiters may gush about work-life balance, but few corporate workers can achieve it. Their jobs are simply too demanding.
5. “Meaning Deficiency” – Even if you’ve received work accolades and financial rewards, you might feel that your contributions aren’t truly meaningful.
6. “Toxic Workplace Blues” – Finger-pointing, backstabbing, bad management and discrimination are just a few of the symptoms of a sick work environment. If you try to function in this atmosphere for too long, you will feel contaminated.
The current state of the job market means that a lot of people are stuck in dead end jobs and can't look elsewhere for work. This in turn leads to more stress and can effect your emotional well being. I have believe that when the job market starts to improve we'll see a lot of people leave corporate America and pursue jobs that are more meaningful to them regardless of job title and even compensation. A lot of us are realizing that we spend way too much time at work to have it bring us down and even if they doubled our salary the frustrations of corporate America would still be there.
Some companies realize that employees are a valuable asset and ensure that the workplace environment is a great place to be productive (Google as an example). But others continue to use cube farms to demotivate employees and absorb them into the collective like the Borg on Star Trek.