If you aren’t happy with your job, you have exactly four options. Five, if you count “do nothing” as an option — but I reject that!
- Wait it out. This is a thoughtful decision to wait for a set amount of time before you reconsider the decision. You might choose to wait it out because of some clear external changes that you anticipate — a project ending, a performance review or a bonus, a merger, the end of an academic year. Or you may decide that you want to shore up something about yourself — finish a course, pad your savings account, get to a milestone at your current organization. “Waiting It Out” might look like doing nothing to the outside world, but internally it feels different, because you can stop asking yourself whether you should put up with the lousy aspects of work or not. You know you’re staying until the date you’ve set, and so you can turn your mental energy to more constructive projects.
- Tune it out. This is the decision to focus on your RESPONSE to the lousy things at work. Maybe you improve your resilience and mood, through physiological interventions (sleep, diet, exercise, nutrition) or mental health practices (mindfulness; self-compassion; meditation). How can you build your ability to maintain calm, to manage stressors, to bolster your defenses against loneliness, bullying, or other challenging interactions at work? These are all learnable skills, and focusing on some of them may yield benefits beyond your job.
- Work it out. This approach identifies the circumstances and factors that make your work life crappy, and analyzes how to change those circumstances. It could be direct negotiation of responsibilities and expectations. Or it could be more indirect — persuasion, influence, careful observation of workplace politics and norms. There are lots of ways to implement the “work it out” strategy if you are willing to be disciplined and thoughtful, and choosing tactics that will work in your organization.
- Get out. We all know what this one means: quitting, and looking for a new role — maybe in a different department or maybe in an entirely different organization. Finding work can take some time (2 – 6 months, typically) and so for many people, it’s wise to combine “getting out” with some strategies for waiting it out and tuning it out — managing your mindset so you can feel patient, choosy, and intentional about your job search.
I made a free course diving into the resources and exercises that can help you be more systematic about this decision. You can find it here, in case it is useful to you or a friend.
And I’m sorry that work doesn’t feel good right now. I’m rooting for you, whatever approach you take to make it better. We spend too much time at work to be miserable there.
