10 Reasons why you may feel stuck or lost in your job
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Here 10 reasons why you may feel stuck or lost in your job. These are intended to help you to get to the bottom of why you are feeling the way you are. If you would like to discuss your personal job situation, do anonymously post your situation in the Job Honesty forum.
1. Comparing yourself to your peers and colleagues
You know the old adage “comparison is the thief of joy”. It’s so cliched, but absolutely true. If you see your peers or colleagues happier in their jobs, more skilled, more senior or more successful than you then this is likely to leave you feeling inadequate and with a lower self-esteem.
We all have different career paths and you’ve got to remember that sometimes some individuals have more opportunities than others due to a variety of reasons. It can also be down to luck, you know the “right time, right place” scenarios.
2. Adopting a scarce mindset
In the current job environment, it’s all too easy to see how tough it is out there and that good and even semi-decent jobs are far and few between. This is probably going to result in you thinking that you should count your blessings for at least having a job.
Gratitude is one thing but being grateful for a job that’s making you feel incredibly unhappy is not something you necessarily have to put up with. There will be opportunities out there for alternative jobs. Maybe not immediately, but in good time there will be.
3. Toughing it out in a less than desirable work environment
Mindset and belief is everything. If you keep telling yourself that you’ll wait or hold on for a bit longer without a clear plan then this is likely to keep you feeling stuck or lost.
There’s a time and place for playing the waiting game. If it’s part of a longer term strategy such as saving up enough money so you can leave your current job, then this is a good tactic. Otherwise, you may run the risk of wasting time in feeling trapped and in a rut.
For an all-round better quality of working life, choices should be made on the basis of what is important to you and not out of a fear mindset.
4. Feeling unconfident in your abilities and skills
If you work in a toxic environment, it is understandable that this may have impacted your self-esteem. This, in turn, will leave you feeling unconfident in your own abilities and skills, despite having strong evidence proving otherwise.
There’s a time and place for playing the waiting game. If it’s part of a longer term strategy such as saving up enough money so you can leave your current job, then this is a good tactic. Otherwise, you may run the risk of wasting time in feeling trapped and in a rut.
For an all-round better quality of working life, choices should be made on the basis of what is important to you and not out of a fear mindset.
5. Your job description doesn’t align with what you actually do in your job
Sometimes, despite doing a thorough due diligence of a new job opportunity, the reality might not match up to what was sold to us.
If you haven’t been in your job for long, you may be hesitant to change your job so soon. You might have a target timeline in your mind as to how long to stick out a job before you can jump ship and choose something that is more aligned with what you’re looking for.
6. Work in a toxic environment
Toxic workplaces can really do a number on our self-esteem, build up resentment towards the job even if we like the job itself and leave us feeling stuck and lost in what to do next.
7. Averse to change or risk
It’s normal to be risk averse and fear change in some aspects of your life. Not everyone is the same in this respect. However, your job should not be one of them especially if it’s making you unhappy.
8. Limited or out of date skills
Depending on the industry you’re in, some skills may need to be kept updated via training and regular learning. If you’ve been out of this loop then you may feel stuck in your current job not knowing how to find another role.
Another scenario you may be faced with is if you’ve been in a particular job for a medium to long period, knowing how to pivot to another job might seem impossible. But the good news is that it is not.
9. Being convinced things will change
Some individuals are determined in nature and don’t easily give up. The downside to this is that, even when there are clear signs that their current job is making them unhappy and they’ve exhausted all the ways to make it work, they’ll continue to put up with a bad working environment.
10. Lack of career goals and alternatives
You may feel stuck or lost in your job if you don’t know what your alternative options are or where you’d like to be in the next few years.