Hate Your Job? Ask Yourself These Two Questions to Find Happiness at Work

I’ve been lucky – there’s only been a couple of jobs I’ve hated, but there’s certainly been days when I’ve hated my job. Why does work – the idea of work, going to work, thinking about work – cause us such anxiety? The Sunday Night Blues and Mondayitis are real afflictions that affect so many of us.

Work puts food on the table, provides us with income to buy a house or rent an apartment, gives us money to travel overseas, raise children, help charities, watch Netflix, drink matcha lattes, pay for gym membership, buy us smartphones, cars, activewear... do I need to go on? What’s not to love? Where is the disconnect?

Gallup’s annual State of the Global Workplace report found 80% of employees are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work. This disengagement costs the global economy around $US10 trillion dollars a year. A survey by career platform Kickstart found 80% of employees said their job negatively affected their mental health and that nearly 40% had quit a job because of mental health concerns.

So what’s the problem? It’s not money. A survey by Reward Gateway found well-being at work was the most important thing to employees and that 58% of people would pass up a 10% pay rise to work for a company that cared about their well-being. The mother of all workplace surveys polling 800,000 workers over 60 years found the number one cause of worker burnout was unclear expectations about your role. Other big causes are feeling underappreciated, poor workplace culture, feeling disrespected, and poor opportunity for advancement.

How do we compare in Australia? We are way more stressed (50% vs 40% globally), less angry (15% vs 22%), and about as engaged in our jobs as everyone else (21% vs 20% globally). Women are more engaged at work, as are people over 35, but women are also more stressed. Managers were found to be more stressed, more angry, sadder, and more lonely than their staff.

What can we do about it? Focus on the aspects of work you enjoy the most and build relationships in the office. People who have a close friend at work are more likely to be happy with their job. Look for purpose in your work – instead of thinking you are just mopping the floor, think of it as creating a safe work environment. The big one is not letting your identity be defined by your job.

Ask yourself two questions: ‘What Am I?’ and ‘Who Am I?’ If your answer to both is the same, then we have a problem. What Am I should be parent, sibling, lover, Under 8s soccer coach, runner, volunteer, or good friend. Then you’ll find some balance and more purpose.