As a working professional, you’ve probably experienced a lot of ups and downs. You’ve worked extremely hard on your career and you have focused on providing your best assets and skills to your employer. You’ve paid your dues and in turn, you may have been rewarded with a few bonuses, perks, raises, and promotions. But what do you do when you no longer have passion for your career?
Are you stuck in a rut or are you experiencing career burnout?
Career burnout is when you no longer are happy with what it is that you are doing. You no longer find your job challenging or rewarding. Oftentimes when you experience career burnout, you are at a crossroads when it comes to your career. You can either go by way of sticking it out with your job, hoping to find renewed interest. Or, you could decide to go another way.
This is what happened to me when I was working in Human Resources. When I was managing a call center/customer service group of employees, it was a wonderful job, but also was one where you had to have a lot of patience and personality. Working in a call center is nothing like working in most environments, and there is a continuous revolving door. I was always hiring and firing and it was very stressful. I’ve had to break up fights and arguments between employees. I’ve been cussed out by an employee who was mad because she was being let go. It’s hard to look into someone’s face, someone who you know had a family that depending on them and tell them that they no longer had a job. Over time, you get immune to it, but it’s still difficult.
After over 2 years of this, I experienced a burnout. Which road did I take?
I left my job and ended up changing my profession by becoming a property manager. Dealing with my burnout had severe complications, including bringing my unhappiness home with me from work. In order to change things, I had to change my working environment.
Not everyone can do this, mind you, but if you can find something else that you love to do, then I say go for it. Why keep working at a job that brings you no satisfaction? No passion?
Here are 3 signs that you are experiencing a burnout:
- You find ways to miss work or call in sick, even when you aren’t, because you don’t want to be at work.
- You get sick or physically ill at work for no reason, other than you no longer like your job
- You no longer care about the quality of your work or your performance
Here are 3 things you can do to overcome a burnout:
- Speak about it with your employer. Find another department or area that you can work in that you are passionate about.
- Go back to school and major in something that interests you. It’s never too late.
- Take your personal passion and create a side hustle business that you can grow and eventually leave your job.
If you are experiencing a burnout, please know that you don’t have to be stuck. Find the passion for what it is you want to do and start working towards that goal.
Have you ever experienced a career burnout? Let’s discuss!
Yes I’ve experienced career burnout. I’m the consummate multi-tasker. I know multi-tasking is an illusion but I just can’t let it go. My background is in health care and health care sales and after 6 years of building my career I just needed a break. Easier said than done. When you’re a health care pro, with a heart, it’s easy to be suckered into taking on more responsibilities. Instead of completely walking away I reworked my schedule and only work 4 days a month. I spend the rest of the month working on projects that I love and feed my creativity. I’m heading back to school in the fall to study Studio Arts & I couldn’t be happier. Career burnout extinguished 🙂
Aminah, thanks for commenting! And good for you! You deserve it. So exited about your new endeavor of returning to school!
I used to work for the large telecommunications company. People absolutely hated the job, including me. Don’t get me wrong, very blessed to work for them for many years. Companies like that get you in a catch 22, good paying job, wonderful benefits, but you dread going in and use all your vacation time in January, and some even had an illness or medical condition that qualifies for FMLA.
Whitney, I think I may know what telecommunications company you are talking about. It sounds very familiar. Especially the FMLA part. Everyone seemed to have used that (and sometimes rightfully so) to get a leave from their job. Thanks for commenting.
Hi Cubicle Chick!
I do experience career burnout and you know what? it is very stressful if you continue what you’ve doing that you don’t actually enjoy. I feel that this make me sick for a while and that’s why I find ways to quit this. But now, I’m renewed and enjoy what I have worked right now. Hopefully, my career burnout will not gonna come back again.
I had career burnout about ten years ago so I picked up and moved from California to Wisconsin and became a self employed Internet marketer and blogger.
Thanks to Google, I’m feeling the burnout again. Might be time for another change. Wish I could go back to school and change careers but I have a family to feed. And my two boys have been really hungry lately!