10 Warning Signs You Are Unhappy at Work

Written by:Alexander Kjerulf

Published on: 05 May 2020 Reading time: 4 minutes

We are all striving for happiness both in our personal and professional life, right? However, sometimes despite our biggest efforts to succeed, our path isn't always a straight line. Since we spend almost 70% of our life at work, it is crucial that we feel fulfilled and happy with both our profession and our working surrounding.

So, how do you feel at work?

To be able to pinpoint the causes of discontent and determine what changes you need to make to feel truly happy at work, you need to look for the symptoms that indicate your unhappiness at work. Here are some of the most typical ones:

1. You Are Procrastinating

Even though you really want to get some work done, you usually do it at the last moment without investing much effort into it, which often leads to poor results and negative feedback. While most people believe that procrastination is only a personal weakness, it is much more than that. It is one of the strongest warning signs that an employee feels unhappy at work.

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2. You Spend Weekends Worrying about Your Job

Some people find it hard to get up on Monday morning and go to their work full of enthusiasm and energy because they see their jobs as really stressful. One of the worst things about being unhappy at work is that this unhappiness is reflected in your personal life.

If you’ve had a lousy day at work, it's tough to come home and forget about your worries. If your whole week at work was terrible, it's really difficult to have a relaxing, exciting and carefree weekend.

3. You Focus on Being Promoted

When people love doing their job, the results are instantly much better. However, when people don't like what they do or are unsatisfied with projects they work on or are simply dissatisfied with their working environment, they look for a way to feel happy. And this is when they start focusing on salary and perks. Also, this is when they start being competitive.

In other words, when people feel unhappy at work, they want to get something else out of it. And the best compensation here is promotion and higher salaries.

4. You Are Much Less Likely to Help Your Colleagues

You have a colleague who has just started working in your company, and he or she needs your help to get familiar with the processes and the whole working environment. But, you don't feel like offering a helping hand. Why is that?

According to one experiment, people who were in either a bad of a good mood were asked to go down the hallway to another room where they would see a man holding a black box trying to open the door. The researchers wanted to find out whether those people involved in the experiment would help that man or not. So, the experiment showed that when people are in a bad mood, they are less likely to help other people out.

5. You Feel That Working Days Are Too Long

One of the first things you do in the morning is to calculate the number of hours you are going to spend at your job. Interestingly, by counting the hours, you make the day feel even longer than it actually is. On the contrary, if you get into the working flow, you simply forget about the time.

6. You've Made No Friends at Work

As mentioned above, we spend almost two-thirds of our life at work. Work is the place where we build new relationships, make new friends for life, and even become best friends with some of them. If you fail to develop a meaningful relationship with at least one person at work, you won't be able to feel truly happy. As a matter of fact, according to the studies having at least one friend at work contributes significantly to your happiness at work.

7. You Don't Seem to Care about Anything

Whether your company is successful or seems to be hitting the rocks, it's all the same to you. You just don't care.

People who feel unhappy at work don't care about their company's successes. Simply put, they care more about themselves and less about the company.

8. You Get Annoyed by Small Things

From the moment you get to work 'till the moment you finish your working day, there are so many small things that seem to be getting on your nerves, and that make you edgy. Someone didn't clean their table desk after them, someone is talking too loudly in the office, or someone took too much space on your parking lot. These are all the things that bug you.

When you feel unhappy, even the smallest things seem to be much more irritating than usual.

9. You Are Suspicious about Other People's Motives

Regardless of what people do, you are always worried about what they are up to. Everything your colleagues do is seen in this light. Suddenly, you find yourself unable to trust anyone as you don't know who might be working behind your back.

Again, according to the research, we feel most suspicious when we feel unhappy.

10. You Are Experiencing Stress Symptoms

Besides having negative reactions to your coworkers and working environment in general, unhappiness at work can cause you to feel physical pain like tension, headaches, low energy, muscle tension, and other physical symptoms.

Based on studies, you are more likely to feel physical pain when you are unhappy at work.

What about You?

We hope we have helped you recognise some of the signs and determine whether you are happy or unhappy at your work. So, are you feeling any of these symptoms or maybe some other? Feel free to share them with us. We would really like to know how you feel about your job.