“Hate” is a strong word, which I don’t use lightly.
Yet, it features in the title of the latest podcast episode as a direct quote from people I’ve interviewed for the blog and podcast, A Fine Balance, who have talked about this exact thing. And it’s right that it’s a strong word because when you don’t like the work you do, it has an incredibly strong impact.
A person’s job is often the benchmark against which people measure their value and identity, as well as being a means to pay the bills and put food on the table. Regardless of the number of hours spent working, feeling like you hate your job will inevitably impact your sense of balance detrimentally.
For the purpose of this Work, Life, Balance Lesson, “hating your job” is categorised into three depths of feeling:
- Rock bottom: a whole hearted hatred, which likely leads to a crisis point.
- A mid-depth where you might hate aspects of your job, or your chosen career, but not all of it.
- A shallow level of hatred, perhaps better termed as “not loving your job”. Here, you may feel uninspired or unexcited by your work, but you recognise the limits of its value to you, and other aspects of life compliment the job to make it more tolerable.
Throughout the episode, I share some examples that have featured on the podcast that relate to each of those levels of “depth” of hating your job, and summarise some of the actions that have helped people regain their balance in those situations, including:
- Taking the drastic measure of leaving your job, even without having another job lined up, as described in Dan Knowlton’s story: On Marketing, Corporate Cultures, Having Fun, and Asking for Help;
- Changing career paths, as described by Laura Krantz in the episode entitled: On Teenage Pregnancy, Teacher Burnout & Finding Balance When You’re “Busy”;
- Taking a break from work, either as an extended peiod of unpaid leave, or having a change of scenery to both rest and gain perspective when deciding on next steps, as Tahmid Chowdhury described in his interview, “Ethnic Minority Beginnings, Burnout and Career Change”;
- Seeking an alternative role within your current employment, even if this means pivoting to a new career path, or undertaking training to learn a new skill, as Tom McLaughlan talked about doing in the episode: Finding Balance in Retirement: Tom’s Story – on Empathy, Leadership & Passion for your Vocation;
- Shifting your mindset about how much fulfilment you gain from your work, as Katherine Brownstein described doing in the blog interview: “It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way” – Finding Balance by Setting Precedents: Katherine’s Story – on setting work-life boundaries as a legal professional & sharing the workload in marriage;
- Seeking alternative sources of fulfilment, both at work and in activities outside of work, as Amanda Kaya described in the episode entitled: “On Not Being Career-Oriented and Finding Balance as a Musician and a Newlywed“;
- Reaching out for help, talking to trusted friends, family or colleagues to work out what you can do to improve your situation, like Laurie MacPherson did, as she described in her interview: Finding Balance on Her Own Terms: “Single By Choice; Child-Free By Choice”.
For a full list of links to the ‘work-life balance stories’ referenced throughout the episode, go to the podcast’s show notes.
And for more, take a look at the blog page entitled: “The Pursuit of Balance… And Burnout“, where more examples are listed.
If it’s of any reassurance to listeners and readers, without exception, where blog and podcast guests have described “hating their job”, they went on to describe how they managed to find a way to regain their sense of balance. I hope this Work, Life, Balance Lesson will be a useful guide for anyone experiencing something similar, keeping true to the premise of this blog and podcast:
To explore the multi-faceted ways that individuals find a balance between work and everything else in life; to learn from one another and celebrate our differences.