Don’t pick up another drink or drug to try and cope with your unhappy work life. There are happy ways to resolve an unhappy working environment by making personal changes in your own life. Unfortunately, company culture cannot always be changed. When you make changes to the way you live your life and approach your work life, you can start a ripple effect which could potentially change your work environment. As Dr. Wayne Dyer titled one of his many spiritual books, Change your thoughts, change your life. Before you can start to change your thoughts on your work life, you have to be aware of them. Moreover, you have to be aware that your thoughts are showing you something needing to be changed. Too often as professionals, we secede to accept that unhappiness, stress, and exhaustion are just part of our lives- our sacrifice of martyrdom to our beloved occupations. However, that sacrifice takes a toll on our mental health, physical health, emotional health, and our spiritual health as well.
Signs you need a change in your work life:
- You’re convinced your coworkers dislike you and as a result, you dislike them: More often than not, our distaste for our coworkers is not so much based on our reaction or response to them but our reflection from them. A coworker may give us no other indication of their dislike toward us. Yet, our fears and insecurities, our projections onto them, skew our perception. Like preemptive action, we dislike our coworkers in case they dislike us. By separating ourselves, we don’t have a chance to find out.
- You’re unmotivated about work: There is nothing that says you have to be 100% in love with your job all day, every day. Many people are in jobs because they have to be. As professionals in certain fields we have worked toward and dreamed about, feeling lackluster about our profession is upsetting. Passion and profession should go hand in hand.
- You’re out of touch with life outside of work: Workaholism is chronic in professionals struggling with substance abuse and other mental health issues. Just one more manifestation of your pain and suffering, despite your unhappiness in the workplace, you cannot seem to leave. Part of your loneliness and isolation rests in the fact that you are overworking, disconnecting yourself from your family, friends, hobbies, and relaxation.
- You’re unhappy and unhealthy: You eat fast food because it’s easy. You work too much, you sleep too little, you’re out of touch with what used to make you happy. Your relationship to work has become toxic and your life is suffering as a result.
You may be turning to drugs, alcohol, or other harmful behaviors as a result. Your mental health could be suffering with depression or anxiety. Still, you work, you abuse substances, and you continue to suffer. You do not have to suffer any longer.
Let the O’Connor Professional Group take the guesswork out of putting a treatment plan together. Our combined personal and professional experience empowers us to empower you with a private consultation and customized plan of action for getting the help you need. Call us today for information: 617 910-3940
