How Hating Your Job Is Ruining Your Life
Do you wake up in the mornings with a heavy feeling of dread and apprehension in your stomach? Do you count down the minutes until 5pm? Do you feel unmotivated and drained by the end of the working day? If so, you are not alone. In fact, a staggering 20-40% of people report disliking their jobs … but this doesn’t make the implications of it any less severe. So how is hating your job affecting your life?
Physical Health
Believe it or not, hating your job can actually impact your body in several ways. Firstly, being in a constant state of stress (even low-grade stress) over time can significantly compromise your immune system leaving you more susceptible to falling ill. This may range from minor illnesses such as frequently catching a cold to more serious illnesses such as heart disease. On top of this, your sleep may also be compromised with a number of people experiencing job stress/job dissatisfaction reporting difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep and difficulty waking up. Work dissatisfaction may also lead to weight gain; this could be due to stress eating, a lack of motivation to move or exercise or higher levels of cortisol in the body making it difficult to shed any extra pounds despite your efforts.
Mental Health
Unsurprisingly, mental health is significantly compromised in people who have decreased job satisfaction; particularly when it comes to depression and anxiety. A number of studies have found strong correlations between job dissatisfaction and symptoms of depression, anxiety and overall subjective wellbeing. Consequentially, this can also negatively impact upon self-esteem with many people who hate their job also reporting feeling less confident and having a decreased sense of self-worth.The majority of us spend a large portion of our days, weeks, months and years at work. It’s a huge investment of our time and physical and mental energy. If our work isn’t providing us with a sense of fulfilment or personal satisfaction, it is not surprising that we’d end up feeling unhappy, drained and lost as to what our purpose really is. This can take a huge toll on our confidence and the way we perceive ourselves as an individual and as part of society. We might also find ourselves becoming stressed more easily and burnt out more frequently which can be especially damaging for our mental health but also for our social relationships.
Social Life
For many people it can be difficult not to bring work home … it can be even more difficult if work is causing you to feel unhappy. A number of studies have shown links between unhappiness at work and unhappiness at home. It may be that you are coming home from work drained and deflated which is causing concern in your loved ones. It could be that you are irritable and find yourself arguing more and more with your partner. Whatever the case, this spill-over effect means that not only might you feel depressed or anxious about work but your relationships between your friends and family may also start to deteriorate meaning you are experiencing unhappiness in other significant aspects of your life too. Studies have also reported a link between job dissatisfaction and social action suggesting that if we are feeling unhappy at work we may be less motivated to engage in social activities, potentially leading to further conflict with our loved ones and an increase in social isolation.
So how about the people who love their job?
So with all these negative effects of hating your job, what about the people who feel genuinely passionate and excited about their work? Well studies have shown that consistent with the ‘spill-over’ hypothesis, there are strong links between people who experience job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction, happiness, positive affect, an absence of negative affect and an increased satisfaction in their relationships. These people also felt more confident and self assured, likely due to the fact that they resonate with the meaning behind their work and feel that it gives them purpose both personally and societally.
Furthermore, this relationship was actually found to be causal which means that job satisfaction had a direct impact on these facets and that enjoying your job really can increase your quality of life.It is worth acknowledging that for some people there are a variety of challenging factors that may contribute to remaining in a job which they hate including financial obligations, limited opportunity or simply not having found their passion. However it is important that we are aware of the implications that this can have and just how much hating your job can impact on other aspects of your life too. In light of this information it begs the question … can you afford not to pursue something you love?