Feeling Stuck at Your Job?

Just the way you sometimes feel stuck in a project or in life, you will sometimes feel stuck at your job. And, it’s totally okay to feel that way. Don’t beat yourself up for feeling like you are in stagnant and not moving forward.

You probably don’t enjoy your job as you used to in the beginning and you find your work boring. Additionally, you even dread to go to the office every morning probably because you feel work is too much and feel like you hate your job.

Feeling stuck at work affects other areas of your life because of the stress that comes with it. You spend a good amount of your day at work approximately 8 to 9 hours, depending on your job requirements. Therefore, having a long day at a job you feel stuck, will definitely stress you and affect other parts of your life. Eventually, this can affect your mental health if you don’t help yourself or find help.

You need to find out and understand why you are feeling stuck and find ways to move forward. However, don’t give yourself too much pressure though.

There are several things that contribute to the rut and you just need to figure out which one suits you.

You took the job for the money.

If you took your job for the money, don’t be too guilty as many people do this. Your high-paying job is probably equivalent to your pay – very demanding.

You are probably always busy at work and it’s totally weighing you down. It is stressing you up and you can’t find a balance between your work and life away from work.

Even though you know you can’t find a work-balance, you still find it difficult leave. You keep doing the job because of the money and this makes you feel stuck.

If you took your job because of the pay, you need to re-asses your decision. You should either accept and adapt to the role, find a work balance or quit the job. Getting another job is a real hustle making adapting the better choice.

The Job is not what you expected.

Most times, people take jobs with very high expectations and unfortunately, things turn out differently from what they thought.

You probably took this job with so much excitement without fully understanding the roles of the job you were hired for. And, you are now taking up roles you did not expect or aware about.

Therefore, any time you are trying to get a job, make sure you do your research. Make sure you ask your interviewer what is expected of you. With this, you will at least know what you are getting yourself into and if you are up for it.

Fully understand the roles expected of you and adjust to those roles.

You are at the comfort zone of your position.

You are probably very settled in your job and don’t need much effort to get things done anymore. Let me tell you, anything that does not challenge you anymore does not improve you – no growth thus you are stuck.

When you don’t improve your skills or add new skills to boost your position, you get settled. Challenge yourself by learning new skills, or strengthen the skills you already have. Make sure you are up-to date with the changes in your industry – technology, skills and work trends.

Increase your chances of getting up the ladder and getting new opportunities with new skills in line with the work trends in your job industry,

Doing the same thing for too long out of fear.

Maybe you have stayed in your job position for way too long and are scared to change up your roles in your job industry or going up the ladder.

Your fear of change and of the unknown is keeping you stuck in your current job position. You want to stay in what you know and are familiar with and this prevents you from growing in your career. And, when you are not growing, you will definitely feel stuck in your job.

‘Un-stuck’ yourself by taking up a career risk. Take up new roles in your job industry that you have been afraid of taking for a while now. Maybe it’s time for a fresh start or a career change even.

Your job is not serving you.

Maybe your job is the reason you are feeling stuck . Your job is not serving you, and by you I mean your dreams, your values and your goals.

Ask yourself what matters to you as an individual, what your goals are and what you want to accomplish in your job/career and your life.

Is your job position helping you move towards accomplishing those goals? Or are you just working to get paid and that’s it? If your answer is no, that’s why you are feeling stuck in your job, it is not serving you.

Do you find yourself regularly compromising the values you stand for just in the name of work?

You should probably change the company you are working for if your job does not support your dreams, goals and values . Come up with plans to find a company/job that supports your dreams, goals and values

Maybe you don’t know not what you want.  

We have just mentioned goals, dreams and values. On the other hand, maybe you do not know what you want and that’s why you are stuck. You probably have no clue what you are doing in your position, not in terms of roles but in terms of goals.

You are probably just working without dreams and goals to work towards or to push you ahead. Why are you doing what you are doing and where you are headed? You probably don’t even have values to stand for.

Get to know what you want so you can get to do what gets you to accomplishing it. Maybe you are not doing what you want to do and you need to look for a job that allows you do what you want to do.

For instance, you might come into a realization that you want to work in a non-profit organization yet you are stuck in the corporate world. Therefore, come up with a plan and strategy to help you leave the corporate job and look for a job in the non-profit world.

You are playing the wait and see game.

You are stuck in your job but you keep saying you will wait and see how things turn out. But that feeling won’t just go away without your effort.

Find out what about your job or you is making you feel stuck. Have someone who can help you figure out the root cause of feeling stuck and possible solutions.

Sitting and waiting to see will not help you get out of the rut you are in. Therefore, understand the strategies you need to put in place to move forward and do just that.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, getting out of the rut and out of the feeling of being stuck requires effort and some type of patience. First, you need to understand the cause of the feeling you are having and finally find the solution depending on the cause.

You can change your career, change of company/organization and maybe adjust your boundaries in your current role.

Remember, when you are not happy in your job, other areas of your life and your career journey will be affected. Therefore, in a way, this is a matter of ‘do or die’ for your career.

In short, when you make the few necessary changes, this will help make your job work for you. Additionally you can make some significant decisions such as career change or company/organization change and ‘un-stuck’ yourself.