If you’re feeling unhappy at work or thinking about a career change you may recognise some of these signs and may help you galvanise yourself into action and make some changes.
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Your job is impacting your health and well-being
Do you dread Mondays and can’t get out of bed each morning, or do you feel overly tired and drained at the end of each working day? If you recognise some of these feelings, then your job is probably making you feel stressed.
Our bodies often take on the stress we place on them each day. This can manifest in headaches, back pain, and tight shoulders. If this is how you feel then your body may be trying to tell you that something is out of kilter.
Your health and well-being are central to helping you live the life you want to live. If your work is impacting your sense of well-being or even making you feel unwell, then it’s probably time for a career change.
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Your work/life balance has taken a downturn
Work/Life Balance is key to your health and well-being and when you are off-balance it can have a real impact on how you feel about your job or career.
We offer a free online Spotlight course on Work/Life Balance to help you review how you feel about key areas of your life. Using separate coaching wheels on key areas of your life and work you can reassess all the important elements of your life.
If work is becoming stressful and knocking you off balance this simple exercise will help you to drill down into the key areas that may be dragging you down.
Once you’ve completed this short course you can start to address any areas you need to change or improve. We’ve produced a free downloadable guide to guide you towards improving some key areas where you might need to make some changes. So even if you follow a couple of our top tips you might find that you soon feel lots better about certain areas of your life.
However, if making a few simple changes in some areas of your life isn’t changing how you feel about work then maybe it’s a sign that it’s time to make a job or career change.
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You’re only there for the money.
If you’re only there for the money, then it really is time to take stock and think about what would help you to feel more satisfied at work. An average person spends 80,000 hours working during a lifetime, so it’s important that your work is gratifying and makes the best use of your skillset.
Finding a job or career that fulfills your passions and brings you both personal and professional satisfaction beats working in a job just for the money hands down. More importantly, finding work you love will have a positive impact on your health.
If this isn’t happening for you then it may be time to start thinking about a change?
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You bring your work home too often
Are you bringing work home to finish every evening, or your brain doesn’t switch off from thinking about work, or do you even dream about it? These are all signs that your job is out of balance with the rest of your life. Such feelings can lead to stress and result in physical and emotional illness.
Keep your work in check. Close the door at the end of the day and don’t bring work home with you. Try to turn off your busy brain by giving yourself time to switch off and adjust to your life outside work. If you commute, try listening to music and if you use public transport read a book or watch a movie.
Alternatively, if you work from home try to keep your working area separate from the rest of your home. Try to set up a workspace as creating a physical boundary is important so you can close the door or section of your workspace. Also, take the time to adjust and transition into your personal time. My partner watches ‘Pointless’, on television, while I listen to some music or do some yoga. Build habits that help you to make the transition from work into your personal life.
If none of these adjustments help you to transition from work to personal time, then there might be something much more serious going on? Listen to these signs as they could be telling you to change your job or career.
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You’re bored and unchallenged
If you find yourself daydreaming or wandering down the YouTube rabbit hole during work these may be signs that your job is no longer really challenging? We can grow out of jobs over time so it’s important to keep how engaged you feel about your work in check.
A wise friend of mine once told me that the first year of a job is always the most challenging while you learn the ropes. During the second year, you can get into your stride and the third year should be a breeze. If your job is too much of a breeze and you can find yourself unstimulated and unchallenged.
If this is happening to you and this is how you feel then it’s probably time to move on?
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You’re not getting any personal or professional development
It’s a fact that organisations that don’t invest in their employees are more likely to see a churn in staff. Not investing in staff learning and development is one of the biggest reasons why employees leave their jobs.
In 7 Reasons Why Staff Development is so Important, we explain the key areas why staff development is so vital to maintaining engagement from employees. However, if you recognise some of these as something you’re lacking in your job role, it may be that you are suffering from a lack of personal development in your current role.
We can all feel a bit stale at times, and we can be unenthusiastic about our jobs. But if this becomes a persistent feeling then we need to acknowledge the sign and start to do something about it.
This could mean dusting off your personal development plan or having a performance review with your manager. But whatever you do, it’s important to take some time out to re-evaluate your role and reflect on your goals and aspirations.
If you work for yourself then it’s even more important to regularly review your personal and professional goals. Everyone should maintain a CPD (continuous personal development) log where you can record your learning and development activities and most importantly reflect on them.
If you’re unsure how to start setting yourself some goals and making a personal development plan check out our free online Spotlight courses to help guide you through the process. And if you’re not sure how to maintain a meaningful approach towards your CPD try reading our guidance in Is it time to change your approach towards CPD?
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You’ve lost your passion
So we all know that jobs change but if they change too much, they can no longer resonate with the reasons why you chose a particular job or career in the first place.
If you find that your job no longer relates to your passions and values, then perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate how you are making your living. You can start by thinking about how you can re-connect to the passion you once felt for your job or career and start to re-focus.
Our free online Spotlight on Work/Life Balance uses coaching wheels on both life and work to help you to review where you are with these areas of your life. They are a good place to start in addition to working through your values and understanding your own ‘Why’, aligned to Start with Why by Simon Sineck.
By working through these various exercises you can start to touch and hopefully reignite your passion and start to identify where you can find this. However, if you can’t reignite your passion maybe it’s time for a change?
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Your boss or colleagues are bringing you down
All too often our work environments can become stressful, underwhelming, and worse still toxic. Work has changed a lot over the last couple of years and many have been able to embrace working from home this has helped balance work/life priorities. If you’re able to continue these arrangements, then it’s important to keep reflecting on how you’re working and make some adaptions as required.
However, lots of people have never been able to work from home, especially those working on the front lines of our health and emergency services. But whatever your working arrangements may be, poor working relationships and a toxic boss can really wear you down.
It’s a sad fact that most people change their jobs to escape their bosses or colleagues. If you feel like this it’s important to understand the real reasons why you are feeling so negative towards your boss or colleagues. You can try to re-build these relationships and see if they can be improved. But if there is no acceptance of the issues and no plans to change then perhaps your gut feeling is the one you should be heeding and it’s time for a job or career change?
If any of these signs resonate with you then please get in touch as we offer career coaching. We can start to help you identify the issues or blocks in your life or work. Once you’ve done this you can start to re-evaluate your true goals and start planning to make your move into a better job or a different career of your choice.