GlobalBX

Dreading Monday morning? Are you short-tempered and impatient with coworkers and family members? 

Everyone, even people who love their jobs, sometimes experience Sunday night blues or irritability from time to time. However, if you feel blue every Sunday night, pay attention; you may be suffering from work inertia.

Here are the symptoms:

• You often feel tired and lack energy.
• You’re late to work and have difficulty getting into your work. 
• Your work doesn’t motivate you – you just go through the motions.
• You dread going into work, especially after weekends and holidays.
• Things that you used to care about no longer elicit the same strong emotions.
• You’re impatient and short tempered with coworkers as well as family members.
• You are indifferent about things you once felt strongly about and don’t stand up for your beliefs or situations you’d like to see changed.
• You lack interest or pride in your work.
• You complain – a lot.
• You think about quitting but don’t for one of these reasons: “It’ll take too much effort to look for a new job.” “I’m too tired to even think about a change.” Or, “Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”

If you have these feelings often, you know you’re not happy at work. How do you change your situation? Do you need a job change – or a career makeover to put that spark back in your days?

To figure out whether clients need a job change or a career change, I often ask them to reflect on the following questions:

• What’s really getting in the way of being happy at work?
• Is it the actual work you’re doing?
• Is it the people you work with?
• Is it because your employer doesn’t recognize your strengths and value?
• Do you even know what your top strengths and values are?

Take Susan, for example. When I asked her these questions, she discovered that she loved her current pay and benefits, but she felt bored and frustrated at work. She had no passion for her profession. She worked alone with numbers all day, but she craved a team environment where she could use her innate creativity and apply her wealth of ideas. In short, Susan needed a career change that encompassed her interests and ignited her passions. 

Ask yourself what makes you unhappy at work. Armed with honest answers, you’ll be in a position to determine if you’re bored and have reached a plateau; if you like what you do, but not where you’re doing it; or if you need to find a better career fit. 

Don’t stay in a career rut. Be open to new ideas and explore new professional goals. Shake things up a bit! Confront your job lethargy with change, and then make a commitment. Find a friend, mentor, or coach to help you. Above all, don’t settle. You deserve much more than that.