15 common reasons why you hate your job
Image by istockphoto
Sometimes it’s not easy to pinpoint why you actually hate your job. Our rational, objective selves can get caught up in the emotions attached with being dissatisfied with work. You may be unsure as to whether you’re simply having a bad day at work or even a spell of several consecutive bad days. If you’re unsure, read on below to find out common reasons why you might feel like you hate your job.
Table of Contents
Your work environment does not feel positive
Toxic workplaces can seriously impact your productivity, motivation, happiness and overall morale. You could really enjoy the role itself but a team environment really makes or breaks whether you enjoy working for your employer. Working in a positive environment is incredibly important to enable you thrive in your career.
You don't get the recognition you deserve
If you’re not receiving adequate recognition and remuneration by your employer, despite putting in significant effort above and beyond your role, it’s inevitable that you’ll begin to feel resentment. If this goes unaddressed, you’ll begin to dislike your job, and over time this is likely to turn into resentment.
There aren't enough opportunities for you and you see no future
If there isn’t any room for you to develop professional growth in your job when you expect this, then you’ll feel stagnant and bored. This deadly combo is sure to result in you hating your job over time, particularly if you want to want to feel challenged in your role and/or progress up the career ladder.
"They didn't promote me"
This is all too common. You’ve worked your socks off to secure that promotion that was so close. You were promised or led to believe that you were in the running for that promotion. But it turns out that you didn’t get it.
You find out that another colleague received that highly coveted promotion that you felt was truly yours. It really does suck. What’s important is the conversations that take place after receiving this disappointing news.
If your boss doesn’t give you constructive feedback as to why you didn’t get your promotion as well as steps you can take for the next promotion cycle and a realistic plan as to when you’re highly likely to receive a promotion, you will end up unhappy, disgruntled and eventually resent your job. Nobody likes or deserves to be strung along.
You don't have a healthy work-life balance
Some industries are inherently taxing in nature due to the long hours required. For example, investment banking roles will require a significant proportion of your time, even on weekends.
As it’s a given, it is unlikely that you’ll have any other expectations. However, if you were sold the idea of a healthy work-life balance before you took on your job, then it is perfectly normal to question why this isn’t the case.
Assuming you’ve raised your lack of a work-life balance with your boss already and nothing has been done, you’ll grow to hate your job. This is perfectly normal.
You have tough deadlines, and your role is constantly stressful
On the other hand, you may have a great work-life balance but if the expectations on turning around work is often incredibly time pressured which causes a great deal of stress, it is inevitable that this will wear you out and you’ll begin to hate your role.
We all have different thresholds of handling stress, and there are ebbs and flows in this threshold based on stages of our lives as well as other things happening outside of work.
You're suffering from burnout
Ah yes, the dreaded burnout. If you’ve been working long hours, completing highly stressful work, experiencing high pressure at work for an extended period of time, and have been neglecting your wellbeing then it is very easily to suffer from burnout.
Burnout can look very different from one person to the next. No job should ever impact your overall wellbeing.
You have a bad boss(es)
Bad bosses can have a variety of bad qualities. From the micromanager down to the hyper-critical, negative person – none of it is fun when you’re on the receiving end.
A bad boss can really make or break a job for an individual and make a workplace really toxic, especially if the bad boss acts the same towards the whole team.
Your coworkers don't respect you
It’s not necessarily the boss that is bad. Sometimes one or more of your coworkers can be equally as toxic. If your job requires to work in close proximity with your toxic colleagues, this is going to result in you hating your job.
Your job role isn't what you were promised
Being misled about your role is a sure-fire way of hating your job. There are so many instances where you leave a former job thinking your new role will be a certain way based on what was “sold” to you during your recruitment process. However, the reality of your new job did not live up to expectations. It is normal to hate a job where it was mis-sold to you, especially if this is not something you enjoy doing.
You are seen and treated as a number by your employer
We are people, we aren’t robots. There will always be some degree of employees being a means to an end for an employer, particularly for larger organizations. However, if your employer is more cut-throat and treats you as a replaceable headcount then you’re not going to receive the respect you deserve.
Mutual respect is paramount in every single workplace. If it’s not there, then we don’t blame you for resenting and eventually hating your job.
Your employer does not allow flexible working, unlike other similar jobs and/or you aren't allowed hybrid working
If other jobs in the same industry as yours allows flexible and/or hybrid working, and this is an important point for you then you’re naturally going to have resentment build up over time if your request for flexible/hybrid working isn’t granted. Especially as we saw most jobs were effectively and productively done remotely during the lockdown period.
You've lost your passion
There are many reasons for losing your passion. We won’t cover them here but it’s common. A lack of passion will not only result in you hating your job but it’s likely to result in you losing passion in other areas of your life, outside of work.
"This isn't the career path I wanted"
So many of us find ourselves in jobs that we accepted just to earn and cover our financial obligations. Some of us land a job thinking that we would enjoy it. But the reality is it’s not always guaranteed that you will enjoy a role. You don’t know until you try it.
"No matter what my job is, I just hate working"
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a perfect job. Many of us will have to work to afford financial responsibilities and a certain lifestyle. We all have good and bad work days.
If you fall in this category, use the next 30 days to document in a journal or personal notebook 3 things you enjoyed and disliked about your day at work. This should help you to pin-point what the underlying reason for you hating your current job.
For many of us, working, to some extent, makes us feel accomplished with ourselves. Knowing that you have done a good job at something, irrespective of recognition, should make you feel that you’re capable of anything.
Final thoughts
If you find yourself constantly negative about your job and you cannot pin-point any particular reasons even after documenting it for 30 days, and you’re generally unhappy with other things in your life, i.e. regular low mood and/or feeling anxious, then we would recommend that you speak with a medical professional to ensure your mental wellbeing is ok.
It’s common to have more than one of the above reasons for hating your job. If you do hate your job and are wondering what you should do next, read this article: “Help, I hate my job! What should I do?”. You can also seek advice from others in our Job Honesty community by posting in the forums, by clicking on the button below.