I Hate My Job. What Do I Do?

(1) What do you love about your job?

This is a weird, right? Shouldn’t we looking at what you hate about your job? No, because we know you hate the job so we’re just exploring those things that you love so that you know what you want to “take with you”. These will be critical elements to look for in your next job. If you name more than 3 things that you love about your current job, I would re-think how much you hate it

(2) How many people will you keep in touch with when you leave?

This isn’t about the annual new year’s text message but real, weekly sort of get-together possibilities. If you name more than 3 people, I would re-think how much you hate your current job because most commonly, people with such a strong support group rarely feel the push out the door as a strong one.

(3) What have you learned that will help you professionally as you move on?

If you can name 3 things that have moved you upwards professionally, the experience at your current job has actually, net net, benefited you more than not so it’s been good overall.

So now, we move back to your original position which is that you hate your job and want to get out. If you worked your way through the series of questions above, and scored 3’s or more for each then the chances are that you likely have a problem with a senior person which is causing you to feel this way about your job. But it’s not really, your job per se.

Research has forever shown that people don’t leave jobs or companies. They leave because of people, most commonly someone senior who they can’t get on with in one way or another. That unfortunately, is pretty hard to fix.

But here’s the deal: before you shoot yourself in the foot (and serve your notice without a back-up plan), start to prep for your next phase of professional life. You need to put feelers out to everyone you know who works in a company that you would consider working for. Ask them if they know of any vacancies and if so, can you have the contact details of the supervisory manager so you can apply there. If they don’t know of vacancies, ask for the contact details of the supervisory managers anyway and contact them regardless. You really need to work your contacts and refresh your network.

People will say that your exit clock starts ticking the moment you serve your notice but the reality is that the clock actually starts the moment your employer figures out that you are planning to leave. What that means is that you have less time to prepare for your transition and re-employment than you think.

So, what words of wisdom for this issue?

First, figure out whether someone is driving you out or whether you really hate the job. If it is the latter, there is no point applying to a similar type of organization as your next phase of professional life because you will likely hate that too. Second, prepare well and have a solid plan for what you need to do to move on. You can tell people you haven’t figured out what you want to do, but that’s just the public-facing comment. Inside, you really need to be sorted and this is so that you are not unemployed for longer than you need to be. Third, when you do leave, best keep your mouth shut as to why you left, especially if it was because someone was giving you a hard time. The industry, even the city where you live, is likely to be a ‘village’ which means that your comments will get back to that person eventually and who needs retaliation, right?