Do you feel more and more uninspired in your job? Can you spot the signs of career fatigue?
Monday morning blues? The Sunday night fear or anxiousness about the working week starting? Trying hard to enjoy a weekend ‘switching off’ from work only to have those same feelings of trepidation when Monday morning arrives? Have you recently told someone what your job is followed by a sigh and the phrase – well, it pays the bills?
You could well be experiencing career fatigue.
It’s common, it’s much more common than you might think. Fixing the issue at work is vital, leaving your job is an option, changing careers is an option, taking time out is an option but any of these things are scary prospects for many. Being able to spot the signs of career fatigue is the starting point to be able to make necessary changes. The very first sign of this kind of fatigue is the sense of things being out of balance – your control over the elements of your life or job are slipping.
When what you’re putting in is not in balance with what you’re getting out, there is a problem that needs addressing. The longer that feeling persists, the motivation and desire to work to the best of your abilities lowers, taking time off increases, you may find yourself being late, watching the clock during the day, leaving early, missing meetings or deadlines or being irritable towards colleagues. There are ways to cope with this type of fatigue once you have identified it in yourself.
The first thing to assess is whether you are tired of your job because of a few weeks of stressful days or if you are completely done with it and know that you need to make a move. If you are in a career crisis, it’s important to make sure you are clear on what you want. How do you want to feel? What would you like your relationship with work to feel like? Once you have sat down and worked out those things, you can regain control of the situation.
Once you know how you want to feel, you can work out what you can do to change things. Start with finding out who you need to talk to in your workplace and arrange that chat – it’s the best place to start in order to address issues and, if things can’t be fixed then you are in a stronger position to start a job search.
Knowing there is a problem that you want to fix, a situation that you want to change and a rebalance in your life that is needed is the starting point, so being able to recognise career fatigue is so important.