Have you ever dreaded going in to work in the morning? And I mean really dreaded it. I’m not talking about those mornings that we’ve all had when we’d rather stay in bed and avail ourselves of the infamous ‘duvet day’. I’m talking about something more fundamental than that – where a particular aspect of your job makes you feel so anxious, uncomfortable – or even fearful – that you just can’t face it.
Joseph Heller, the author of Catch 22, captured this feeling in his book Something Happened when he wrote the following about life in the office of his main protagonist, Bob Slocum:
If you asked any one of them [employees] if he would choose to spend the rest of his life working for the company, he would give you a resounding No!, regardless of what inducements were offered….. If you asked me that same question today, I would also give you a resounding No! and add: “I think I’d rather die now.”
Elsewhere Bob adds “Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.”
While not all of us have experienced this feeling at work, I’d be willing to bet that there are plenty of people out there who have done or are doing right now. There are many sets of circumstances that can cause these feelings – work relationships, feeling that you are going to lose your job at any minute, lack of role clarity / sense of purpose, unrealistic workload / timescales, unbalanced working hours, the general climate / atmosphere of the workplace, your depressing working environment / office, the level of autonomy you have over your deliverables …..the list of potential causes goes on and any combination of these that might lead to feelings of dread.
What’s interesting is how many of these ‘sources of dread’ stem from relationships – particularly that with your boss which, of course, can be such a key determinant of what work feels like. Other aspects influenced by your boss include level of pay, whether you know what’s going on higher up in the organisation and whether work feels like fun.
But what you can do if you feel this way? The first and most important thing is to take control. Stand back and look at the situation to understand which of the above factors are at play. But also consider your own role in this – have your needs gone beyond what this department in this organisation can offer you? Have you played any role in causing this situation?
Once you understand how things have got to this situation you have to take appropriate action. You may need to discuss the matter with a work friend to get a reality check and find out whether others share your perceptions. You may need to speak directly with your boss and find a way to raise the problem in an open and honest way. Or you may need more help with understanding the problem from a counselor or welfare officer. You may simply need to leave. The important thing here is that you move yourself on, that you don’t accept the status quo and drag yourself to work every day for the next five years hating every second. Taking action will change your perspective and help you to generate options for change: Change the job design, change the environment, work in a different part of the organisation or even a different organisation. The bottom-line is – if you don’t like it, change it.
Most importantly, don’t be like Bob Slocum who said “No one understands that carrying on bravely was the easiest thing to do.”
