Have you ever felt like a robot? Every day, you squeeze onto the MRT, then do the death march to your office where you’ll spend the next 8-15 hours (depending on whether the work-life balance at your workplace is bad or WORSE).
So how do you prevent your soulless corporate job from making you feel dead inside? Here are five things that can help.
Find a hobby that energises you
If you feel like a drone because your entire life plays out in an office cubicle, it’s probably not your job that is entirely to blame—it’s also how you spend your time outside of work. Got no interests other than Netflix and Facebook? Then you need to get a life.
The rigidity of an office job can be counterbalanced to an extent by a hobby that helps you feel more like an individual, and not some corporate monkey. Get into a hobby that strengthens your sense of self. Whether that’s CrossFit, poi spinning or building anime robots is really your call.
Prioritise work-life balance
As much as Singaporeans like to complain about having lousy work-life balance, the fact is that there are many people who aren’t exactly overloaded with work. These end up staying late simply because they’re not working efficiently during office hours, whether because of a lack of discipline or because they’re deliberately staying late to make the boss think they’re hardworking. Many employees take long lunches and frequent coffee breaks and then complain that they can’t leave on time.
Tackle that by really prioritising work-life balance and doing your best to leave on time every day. When you are flooded with work, consider staying in during lunch or taking a shorter lunch break. After all, if it means you get to leave the office 30 to 60 minutes earlier, it’s worth it.
Find ways to keep from feeling dead inside during work
Everyone’s worked one of those jobs where they spent the entire working day just trying not to lose their sanity. Working in such an environment is definitely going to take a toll on your mental health and make you feel like life isn’t worth living.
So take active steps to keep your work day as stress-free as possible. Using headphones to drown out background noise and give your day a pleasant soundtrack can be very helpful. You can also curate a Spotify playlist to help yourself get into the zone and work more efficiently.
During lunchtime, nip off to a quiet spot for some meditation instead of griping with colleagues about your boss.
Remind yourself what personal, professional and financial goals you’re working towards
Sometimes it can seem like you’re just toiling away, day in day out and that you’ll be doing it till the day you die.
So it helps to constantly remind yourself just why you’re doing what you do. Identify the professional and financial goals you’re working towards, and bear them in mind whenever the going gets tough.
For those lucky enough to have jobs that are meaningful to them on a personal level, it always helps to keep this sense of purpose at the forefront of your mind. If you’re a teacher who’s struggling to juggle a heavy workload and tons of admin, you want to remind yourself that you’re there to mould the next generation.
But let’s face it, many people work for the money, and not much else. If that’s the case for you and you don’t see yourself leaving your job anytime soon, focus on achieving your financial goals as soon as possible. Every month you slog away brings you one step closer to your goal, whether it’s to buy a home, retire early, become a billionaire or whatever.
Plan your next career move
If your job is making you feel like the walking dead every second of the day, it’s in your best interests that you eventually find a new one.
Planning your next career move, and plotting what you’re going to do when you’re finally out of that dump has kept many a disgruntled employee alive.
So don’t be one of those people who complain about their job but never do anything to change it. If you want to get a new job, see recruiters, network like your life depends on it and make sure you learn everything you can at your current workplace before it’s time to leave.
Have you ever worked a job that made you feel dead inside? Tell us how you coped in the comments!