Is It Time to Break Up With Your Job?

11 Mar Is It Time to Break Up With Your Job?

Confession time: I used to listen to break up songs in my car on my commutes into work every day (Beyoncé’s “Sorry” was a fav).

It was an effective coping mechanism. Rage-singing on my drive in somehow made the time I spent in the office slightly more tolerable.

Looking back, though, I understand more about why I was doing it. It helped me feel tough and in control. Like a bad boyfriend, I was saying to my desk job “I don’t need you. I deserve SO much better.“

I was belting out those song lyrics as a way to build up my courage to finally make the break I knew I needed to. Because while I was giving everything I had to my job, I didn’t feel like it was giving anything back.

I didn’t feel valued or appreciated. Nor did I get any satisfaction from my duties (which were really just a looot of make work). None. Zero. Zilch.

And that wasn’t cool with me. At all. It felt like a lot of giving giving giving of my time and energy and effort, without much upside for me (besides a paycheque, which always seemed like not enough compensation for selling my soul).

See, work is a lot like a relationship. It’s a two-way street. I think we forget that sometimes. You put in the work, yes. But you also deserve to get things in return. Like enjoyment and fulfillment. Challenge and growth. Learning and expansion.

So if you’re not getting these things in the job you currently have, then you have every. damn. right. to tell it “Boy, bye” and move the hell on to a gig that does.