I Don’t Want To Work Anymore – What To Do?
Your vacation is coming to an end, and the only thing running through your mind is “I don’t want to work anymore”
Although I’ve only worked part-time jobs for 4 years I know that feeling very well. For some reason, I believe my destiny shouldn’t be found within a company working 9 to 5 for a boss I don’t like. And you may feel the same.
It seems bizarre to walk around with this feeling. Isn’t a job the whole meaning of life? Everybody else is enjoying it – or so they’d like to convince you. So why aren’t you and I having the same eagerness to work in the corporate world?
5 Reasons you don’t want work anymore & how to cope with it
Before you just throw everything away and quit your job you must diagnose why you don’t want to work anymore. Is it your toxic boss, limited personal development, low/high responsibility, co-workers, stress, personal matters at home or what exactly?
If you don’t diagnose the problem, quitting your job can just make you feel worse.
1 Stress at home
Coming home after 8 or 10 hours of work to a household filled with chores and kids can be enough to make anybody feel stressed. Some people manage it better than others, and being one of the people who can’t handle it is more than okay.
Being stressed at home can lead to a lack of motivation in your job as well. And studies have shown that women spend on average 37% more time on household chores than men – that equals about 14 hours more work every week.
How to manage stress at home?
Patricia Buss, M.D., medical and health care services operations officer for Health Net, Inc., explains “Stress has been linked to a broad range of psychological and physical disorders.”
Thus reducing the stress you experience at home is crucial for you to function properly. Here are a few ways to do exactly that:
Be honest with your partner
If you have a partner, then have an honest discussion with them. Explain how you feel, and look into whether you can find a solution that can take a large portion of the burden from your shoulder.
Maybe you don’t have a partner, and then you should reach out to friends and family so they can help you. Maybe a friend can shop the groceries for you once a week for a month just to get started. The smallest gestures can sometimes have the biggest impact.
Slim down your schedule
Many feel like they must complete every single task on their schedule every day to feel accomplished, and that’s just draining them of energy. A way to complete every single task without being drained of energy can be done by cutting off less important tasks. It’s totally fine to postpone the window cleaning for tomorrow.
Organize
Sometimes a simple thing like organizing your home or schedule can be enough to save you the time you need to feel more energized. But you must take action and start organizing otherwise you won’t feel the effect.
Look into more ways to reduce stress here.
2 Burned out
Feeling exhausted from working is a normal feeling. In fact, a study done by Deloitte found that 77% have felt burned out, and over half of the respondents stated they’ve felt it more than once. Although it’s a too far-normal thing to experience, it’s not a delightful feeling to fight with. It makes you unmotivated for work, some get depressed, and it can lead to more serious physical and psychological illnesses.
But there are multiple options for handling burnout.
Relaxing activities
Try to find some “me time” every day. It doesn’t have to be a lot. 20 to 30 minutes would do the work. And the activities you do in those minutes should be relaxing like meditating, doing yoga, or taking a bath. Making yourself feel more relaxed can help improve your mindset and decrease the feeling of burnout.
Get exercise
Exercising is crucial for the body and mind, and just power walking 20 minutes a day can be enough to get your mind into a better state.
Get more sleep
Sleep is another essential factor, and something you should not play with. A study conducted by Metlaine A, Sauvet F, Gomez-Merino D, Boucher T, Elbaz M, Delafosse JY, et al. showed that people experiencing burnout have higher insomnia troubles, sleep fragmentation, and restorative sleep than people not experiencing burnouts. Thus getting enough sleep is important.
3 Toxic environment
There’s nothing worse than a work environment filled with toxic bosses and co-workers. I lost a significant amount of motivation due to toxic bosses in the past. If your boss isn’t the problem, but it’s your colleagues, then talk to your boss. On the other hand, if it’s your boss try talking to the HR department or any other employee that might have your back.
You should not be going to work each day if the workplace is toxic. Then seek other possibilities instead.
4 You are bored
Maybe none of the above-mentioned causes might be the reason why you don’t want to work anymore. It could simply be because you are bored in your current job. You are not challenged enough, you don’t find the personal development you are looking for anymore, you are just stuck in daily boring routines.
I would recommend talking with your boss, and looking into whether you can have more responsibility or try out new tasks. Maybe you are effective and have too much time at work, then try coming up with an idea and offer to tackle it yourself. This would help the company while you get to work on tasks that you are passionate about – Win Win.
5 Dreamy type
I don’t know about you, but I’m a dreamy type and don’t dream about a career in the corporate world. Instead, I’m passionate about finding ways to earn money and entrepreneurship. If you are like me and don’t think the corporate world is for you, there’s no other way than to quit your job. But wait… Before quitting you must check these boxes.
Emergency fund
You must have an emergency fund so you can provide for yourself and your family. Build it so you at least can live 3 months without income. If something goes wrong you have some money while finding a solution.
Direction
Don’t quit before you have a direction. You must know if you want to make something yourself or if you want a part-time job or something else. Direction is not the same as a plan. You can quit way before you create the blueprint, but direction is key.
I wanna quit, but what about money then?
The two things that make you stick to your job are:
- Your income is too low
- Your expenses are too high
If you had unlimited money, then a job wouldn’t be a necessity for you in order to survive, and you could therefore quit.
And if you had no expenses, then you wouldn’t need a job either.
That’s why people feel trapped in their jobs. They have expenses and quitting their job wouldn’t yield the income they need. But there’s a way.
What should I do?
Instead of focusing on the things you cannot do, focus on the things that you can do to come closer to an income that’s enough for you to survive. Survival is the first step, and you’ll be surprised how little money you must generate in order to survive if you do some incremental changes in your life.
If you hit the survival mark, then comfort will come soon, since the distance between survival and comfort is not far away from each other. The trickiest part is reaching survival, and from there it’s going to be easier.
Serious budgeting
Take your budget seriously, and plan how you spend your money. You aren’t going to have instant success and a lot of money, although that would be lovely. Spend your money wisely, especially in the first period of grinding. Making a budget before quitting your job can help a lot, and make you see how much money you need for survival.
I’ve made a fully automated budget that you can download for free here.
Side hustling
Start a side hustle while working your full-time job. I know this won’t help you quit your job instantly, but it would help you resign from your current job in a better position.
While doing your side hustle you must come up with an income goal, that’s enough for you to quit your job. Knowing that you’ll soon quit your job can also give you that extra spark of energy you need at work, and you might have a little extra energy when the day is over to work on your side hustle.
Two in 5 Americans (40%) also currently have a side hustle, that’s an increase of 34% in December 2020. More people also plan to start a side hustle according to Zapier.
What are you waiting for? Pick your side hustle today.
Passive income
Being able to generate an income passively is important to free up more time for you to work on projects. And a passive income stream itself could be one of the first projects to consider. There are many different paths to generating passive income, and I’ve listed a few here.
This is also something you can work on while working your full-time job, and it will also put you in a better position when resigning.
Final Thoughts
The “I don’t want to work today” feeling is okay once in a while, but the “I don’t want to work anymore” is serious and should be treated accordingly. You must identify the problem that’s the reason why to don’t want to work full-time anymore. After that, you must come up with a plan for how to solve the problem.
If the only solution is quitting, and you need help, then feel free to reach out to me in the comment section or through my mail.
Annotations
Deloitte “Workplace Burnout Survey” (Retrieved: 22nd of August 2022)
Metlaine A, Sauvet F, Gomez-Merino D, Boucher T, Elbaz M, Delafosse JY, et al. (Jan, 2018) “Sleep and biological parameters in professional burnout: A psychophysiological characterization”
U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics “American Time Use Survey” (Retrieved: 22nd of August 2022 )
Zapier (2021) “One in three Americans have a side hustle”
