How to Use a Job You Hate to Your Advantage

I was recording a podcast recently and was reminded of a time in my life where I dreaded going to work every day. My role had gotten stripped down to the extent that it wasn’t fun anymore. My boss was demeaning. No one really seemed to care what I thought or what I brought to the table. I even had a peer storm into my office and tell me all of the things she didn’t like about changes I was making. It was a tough time to say the least. I’ll admit, I was green in my leadership. There was a lot I had to learn but I wasn’t sure who to go to to learn it. At the time, I was just miserable. Have you ever felt like that? You’re in a job you hate and every day just feels like drudgery.

Well, I wallowed in my pity party for a little while but I refused to stay there. I decided I’d use that job, where it felt like I was at rock bottom, to my advantage. Get the full explanation in the YouTube video. Look, I understand that when you’re in a job you hate you can feel frustrated, angry, bored, or even hopeless to move forward. But you don’t have to be the victim of your story. Take the power back. Rather than looking at your situation as something that happened to you, ask yourself, how can I make this the beginning of a new chapter?

How I changed my mindset

It isn’t just a snap of the fingers to go from a job you hate to using it to your advantage. I had to change my mind before I could ever change my actions. I had been focused on what was happening to me for so long I almost forgot that I could impact it. The hero of my story could be me. I didn’t have to wait for someone to come save me. Transitioning from the victim to the victor took intentionality. I had to stop focusing on my problems. There I was, so focused on my problems and how frustrated and angry I was that I couldn’t see any solutions. Once I changed my mind, and decided I would look for the solution, I was able to see them.

It’s almost like when you walk into your home and it’s a disaster. The sink is full of dishes, floor needs to be vacuumed, and mail needs to be picked up. Are there cobwebs in every corner? As you stare at everything that needs to be done, you’re overwhelmed. You can only see the problems. That is because you’re asking yourself the wrong question. You’re looking for the mess, for the problems. If you step back and look for the solution, you’ll see that too. Maybe your kids can dry dishes. Your spouse can surely take on those cobwebs. Before you know it you’re fully delegating the dishes and you’re creating a new mail process to ensure you don’t drown in envelopes again. Even in the messy home, like the job you hate, you can see all the opportunities because you’re looking for them.

What steps to take to advance in a job you hate

These three steps are best done with a journal and sometime to work through everything in your head. That said, when I was really hating everything about my job, I used my commute to work through it. Not only was it uninterrupted time, but it also was a way to turn my frustrations at the end of the day into solution focused action before I took all my work irritations out on my family. I could strategize what action I could take and prioritize skills that I needed to work on. If this sounds like action you want to take, watch the YouTube video here that outlines it all.

Identify what you hate and why

OK I’m not going to lie; you do have to start out looking at the problems. I just don’t want you to stay there. Take an investigative approach to looking at the problems rather than a woah is me approach. What is it about the job that you are looking to get away from? Are you irritated about the amount of work you’re being asked to do? Is there an expectation that you don’t feel is appropriate, maybe hybrid model or dress code? Is your boss or a coworker creating a poor culture that you’re wanting to escape? Maybe it’s no one single thing. Are you sure you could contribute in a bigger way in another role? Do you feel stifled or boxed in in the role you’re in now?

Looking at what you’re unsatisfied with from an analytical standpoint helps you move forward. You’re done complaining about what’s going wrong, you’re poising yourself to do something about it. Make a list of each of the problems you have with this job, big and small, to get ready for the next step.

Transform them into what you want

Once you know what you don’t want, it’s time to transform them into what you do. Take that list and go one for one listing what you would want in your dream job. Don’t over think it. Identify what you want and list each next to what you’re sick of in this job. Let’s use that prior list as an example and just assume the job you hate encompassed all of those problems.

The other side of your list might read a little something like this. I want set work hours where I’m not having to put in a ton of overtime during busy season. My work should be measured based on results, rather than where I work from. I want coworkers who spend more time working and less time in coffee klatch. In fact, I want the option of whether or not I join the team coffee hour and team lunch if they aren’t a good use of time. I want a job that has a clear career progression where my creativity is rewarded. Congratulations, you just switched your mindset from problem focused to solution focused.

Look for creative ways to get what you want

Sometimes you are right, and that job you hate really can’t deliver on what you want. Other times, it can at least close a piece of the gap. For example, maybe once you put on your solution focused mindset you realize you don’t actually know what your metrics are or how they compare to expectations. What a great question to ask your boss. Once you are on the same page you might have legs to request a more flexible work arrangement. Perhaps you find out they don’t want mandatory overtime either. You might discover that your creativity and motivation to reduce or remove overtime would be great in analyzing the workload model and find a new solution.

Let’s assume it isn’t quite that simple though. You want to use a totally different type of creativity for example. Perhaps you use this conversation to set up a job shadow with Marketing or Sales to see if your skills are a better fit there. There could be a small project you take on that, while it doesn’t check all the boxes, it does provide you an outlet and gives you an option to exercise a different muscle. Get more detail on how to do this in this YouTube video.

Will the job you hate stay just that?

That job you hate might just stay exactly what it is. You may not have the bandwidth or desire to take on anything more or anything different. That is ok. It might be that you use this opportunity to create a list of what you want in your next role. Then, you practice your skills of negotiating with your boss on what you do want. You practice your skills in boundary setting. You learn to communicate and influence better in this role. If this is the case, and you need to move out of the job you hate and into a job you love, at least now you have the perfect sandbox to try out new skills and sharpen existing ones without fear of it holding you back in your role. Because you’ve clarified that you don’t want it in the first place.

Do the work to move yourself out of the victim mentality to the solution-oriented victor mindset. It will either work for you or it will work on you and what better place to have it work on you than in this role, the role you hate. I can’t think of a better worst-case scenario. Then, when you’re ready to take that next step, I have a free resource that will help you get there. Whether you’re looking at a promotion or working on an entirely different position, click here and snag your free guide to help you get to the dream job you do want.