Under Appreciated at Work? Why You May be the Cause!

Not everyone loves there job all of the time. In fact, many of us despise the work we do, and we spend the majority of our day staring at the clock on the wall, willing it to fast forward to the end of the day. It's taken me at least ten years to finally find a job that actually I enjoy waking up to, and rarely do I dislike it. But what if you had the privilege of working at a job you actually loved, and all of your blood, sweat and tears went unnoticed by your boss? Would you still love your job? Would the rewards of the work itself be enough to sustain your happiness and personal satisfaction? Probably not, and this is a common complaint by employees no matter the industry they happen to be working in. 

While many of us allow ourselves to feel victimized by rude or pushy employers we don't stop to consider that we might need to sit down to do some serious self-reflection. The North American mentality in the workplace is to redirect blame on whoever looks like a sufficient scapegoat. There are absolutely cases in which it doesn't matter how hard you work for an employer, they just can't be pleased and in those cases, it may be time to say C'est la vie to the job, because they're just severely flawed individuals who never be able to stop attrition from occurring in their company. 

Before you come home whining about a ungrateful boss, sit down and have a good think about the structure of your work day and the kind of work you are doing. You may be feeling under appreciated, but is it because of the wrong reasons? Are you really giving your all to your job? 

1) If you are someone who takes work home in the evenings or on the weekends this does not necessarily mean that you're working harder, it more often than not, means that you are not managing your day properly! You might need to consider tweaking your time management skills so there is more of a separation between work and play! 

2) Are you wasting time, or creating value? You might have spent 12 hours working on a report or brief for the boss, whereas, your colleague may have spent 6 hours and produced a better product. This not only shows that you may be struggling with time management again, but perhaps there are some skill incompetencies that you are in denial about! 

 

3) Are you waiting for your employer to decide your future for you? If you're sitting at the sidelines waiting for that promotion, it's probably not going to happen! Your employer is not responsible for your career growth, you are. They are simply there to provide the framework and the rest is up to you! You need to learn to ask for it, and not just expect it. 

There of course exceptions, and as I mentioned above, there are employers that are just miserable and incompetent! If this is the case, move on and find an environment that you feel that you can thrive in. But before you jump ship, consider what you can do to contribute to your own personal growth, rather than placing the blame elsewhere.