How to cope with hating your job and Depression (A guide)
By
OptimistMinds
As a BetterHelp affiliate, we may receive compensation from BetterHelp if you purchase products or services through the links provided.
Author bio
The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
In this brief guide, we will discuss hating your job and depression, how bad job conditions can lead to depression, and how to cope with such feelings.
The relation between hating your job and Depression
Hating your job can lead to depression, as has been seen in many studies, and to cope with the issue you can either change your job or find healthy outlets for negative feelings, otherwise, your productivity will eventually suffer and you will be miserable as well.
If you can’t help hating your job but for financial reasons you are not able to leave it, it can contribute to, or even cause depression, but things like therapy or antidepressants can still help you feel better substantially.
Signs that you are hating your job and depressed
Some signs that you are just constantly hating your job which might be making you depressed are burnout, not wanting to work at all, trying to avoid work, and wanting to switch jobs constantly.
Here are some other signs that you hate your job and it might be time to either quit or do something that doesn’t make you so depressed.
You think about your job all the time
If your job is the first thing you think about when you wake up and you don’t feel good about it, chances are it’s weighing heavily on you and you are in the process of hating your job and getting depressed about it.
Thinking about your job on weekday evenings and weekends, when you should be working on clearing your mind and relaxing, is a really bad thing.
Of course, it could mean that you are actually just really excited about your job, but if you are thinking about your job with dread on your off time, it is not a good sign and you might need a change.
Rumination has been linked to depression anyway, so if you are ruminating about your job constantly, you are not just hating your job, but also might be depressed.
You can’t help complaining about work
If the thought of your job is making you truly unhappy and unfulfilled, you may start to spend a lot of time and energy explaining to other people how bad it is making you feel.
If your loved ones or friends have told you that you complain about your job a lot, chances are you hate your job.
Complaining about something all the time also adds to your feelings of distress, so that’s another reason why hating your job may make you depressed eventually.
Social events with coworkers are draining
Not wanting to hang out with co-workers all the time is okay, because everyone needs some down-time, but not wanting to be with them at all at social gatherings may mean that you hate your job, because it may seem like you can’t stand these people at all, apparently.
It might even be as simple as eating lunch at your desk instead of the common area or rushing home after work to avoid happy hour or small talk with co-workers at the end of a long day.
You have really negative thoughts about work
If your inner monologue about work is dragging you down, it’s not a good thing.
When you have a bleak perspective about your office, you may start to think overly negative thoughts about work, such as “I’ll never get a promotion,” or “I always get scolded.”
This inner monologue may drive you down further, and cause some major distress in the long run.
You can’t find anything good about work
When it comes to your work you see the glass as half empty. This is a sure sign that you are unhappy with a situation.
If you can’t help focusing on the one bad thing even if nine good things happen at work one day, it may mean that you are depressed about work.
You feel sick all the time
Depression is not just mental, it can make you feel some pretty awful stuff physically, like sleep or appetite issues, or just a general feeling of something seriously wrong in the body.
If you feel like this all the time and the feeling of something wrong increases when you think about work, it may be the fact that you hate your job and are depressed about the prospect of work.
You don’t want to get out of bed in the morning
If your job is making you miserable, you might not want to get out of bed because that means you’re closer to being at work.
It can be hard to be excited about the day when you are not looking forward to what you do, at all.
You’re irritable
If you find yourself snapping at little things, it may be because you are miserable with work and it is coming out in other ways.
In addition, it can also be because you are depressed and that is making you miserable about everything in your life, including your job.
You feel the Monday blues more than others
If you relate far too much to the Monday morning blues, which is the feeling of being at work on Monday after having had the weekend off, you might hate your job.
Is being depressed leading to hating your job?
While hating your job can make you depressed, it can also be the other way around, as depression tends to affect your motivation and your job is a significant part of your life that needs you to be somewhat motivated to function.
A job requires your cognition to be sharp and alert all the time, you have deadlines, projects, a social circle that you need to interact with; all these aspects of a job can be very challenging to someone with depression, and it may lead to you hating your job because you are depressed.
If you have experienced that you are not happy even when outside of work and even when the demands of the job are lesser, you can’t help feeling blue and lethargic, it may be that you are just depressed, and that is making you feel so bad.
You may want to seek help before getting out of your job so that you can make sure that it is the depression that is making you hate your job.
What does hating your job have to do with depression?
Hating your job can exacerbate or cause symptoms of depression, according to Los Angeles based Psychotherapist Sarah Schewitz.
She says, “If you’re constantly miserable at work, of course, that’s going to affect your mental health. If you already have a more negative outlook on life because you’re feeling depressed, or more fearful outlook on life because you’re anxious, it’s completely amplified by being at a place that you despise on a daily basis.”
A study that assessed job satisfaction and the mental health of people who were not happy with their jobs, found that people with lower job satisfaction or who hated their job suffered from more mental health problems.
“The higher levels of mental health problems for those with low job satisfaction may be a precursor to future physical problems,” the author Hui Zheng said. “Increased anxiety and depression could lead to cardiovascular or other health problems that won’t show up until they are older.”
In addition, people who are in hated work conditions are unable to find the silver lining in a bad scenario, as apart from being grateful to have a paycheck, they don’t see it as worth the effort.
Sarah Schewitz says “It’s harder for people who have a mental illness to manage this thought process around hating their job, people with mental illness may have a harder time getting that theme, that silver lining, so it’s easier to go to a dark, negative place when you have a mental illness. Your brain’s kind of primed for that.”
Sometimes it may feel like it is easier to get stuck at a job you hate because mental illness, like depression, just doesn’t allow for a path out.
Depression may also mean you might stay despite hating your job because you just can’t motivate yourself to find alternatives.
“There’s a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness,” says Schewitz. “If you’re feeling hopeless and helpless then you’re often not motivated to change your situation [if you feel] that way about your job, and feel overwhelmed at the thought of even trying to get a new job.”
It may require immense effort to get out of a situation you hate, but it is worth it if it changes you mental health even a little, for the better.
“I would have them shift the way they’re thinking and remind themselves daily that they are not stuck,” Schewitz adds. “Even just shifting that perspective can be powerful.”
How to cope with hating your job and depression
For depression it is important that you seek help, however, to cope with hating your job and trying to find some way to deal with a bad situation, you can try some of these tips that experts recommend:
· Try to be grateful, engaging in actively finding things to be grateful about can rewire your brain to be more optimistic about things in general.
· Try to be consciously kind to other people, this can jump-start the mechanism of empathy in your mind and that can be a good way out of depression and feeling bad all the time.
· Meditate, especially at work. Take a couple of minutes every couple of hours and just close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Alternatively, you can also use an app like Calm, to guide you through short meditations.
· Try to make some friends at work, or even just one person you feel very comfortable with, it can give you some good vibes.
· Get out of the office once in a while, just for a short walk outside to get fresh air.
· Clean your desk, messy spaces, and clutter can jam our minds and make us prone to feeling cluttered inside as well.
· Try to focus on work only while you are at work, outside, don’t talk about work, and don’t let thoughts of work come into your mind. Finding a work-life balance is key.
· Personalize and decorate your space with colors and things you like. This can make it feel much more comfortable and you might not hate going there so much.
· Get a tiny desk plant that doesn’t require a ton of upkeep. Being responsible for something other than work can be an incredible way to boost your mood and the color green also helps with concentration.
Conclusion
In this brief guide, we discussed hating your job and depression, how bad job conditions can lead to depression, and how to cope with such feelings.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Hating your job and Depression
Can job dissatisfaction cause depression?
Yes, job dissatisfaction can cause depression.
Work-related factors like long hours, a bad relationship with your boss, and lack of control over little tasks, or too much responsibility are some of the factors that can get worse over time and can contribute to depression.
What profession has the highest rate of depression?
Industry and office jobs have been seen to have the highest rate of depression. In addition, Anesthesiologists and Psychiatrists, ironically, also have a high rate of depression.
According to the Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology report “Industries with the highest rates [of depression] tended to be those which, on the national level, require frequent or difficult interactions with the public or clients, and have high levels of stress and low levels of physical activity.”
Is hating your job normal?
No, hating your job is not normal, for the most part even if you don’t like some aspects of what you do on occasion, hating your job all the time is a sign that you are in the wrong.
It has been seen, however, that roughly 70 percent of people are reportedly dissatisfied with their careers.
Can a job affect your mental health?
Yes, a job can affect your mental health.
A job takes up a lot of your time and researchers have found that being in a job that one hates is worse for one’s mental health than being unemployed.
When a person’s mental health is suffering due to things like depression, it often manifests in physical problems as well.
Those who are depressed or suffer from anxiety often eat too much, for instance.
Does hating your job make you tired?
Yes, hating your job can make you tired, as it causes a great deal of stress to hate something.
The stress of going to a job you hate every day puts you in a constant state of harmful negativity, which can cause dangerous levels of stress.
In addition, if your job is disrupting your sleep, that is also a serious problem.
Citations
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hate-your-job-body-symptoms_n_5c40a314e4b0a8dbe16e8373
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/low-job-satisfaction-health-effects-0816
Was this helpful?
Overcome Depression and Find Joy in Life Again with BetterHelp
