Effects of Being in an Unfulfilling Career

Being in an unfulfilling career is not just about you since it impacts your relationship, what messages your children are seeing about work, and your physical and mental health.

In this article, I’m going to be talking about the effects of being in an unfulfilling career and how it’s probably ruining your health.

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Effects of Being in an Unfulfilling Career

First, let’s start with its impact on your overall health.

You might think that your job is just where you spend most of your days. It provides money to let you do all the other things that you love.

However, you will spend over 90,000 hours at work during your adult life, and being miserable for that long has actual factual consequences.

To ensure that we are on the same page, let me clarify what an unfulfilling career is.

An unfulfilling career is a career that makes you feel dissatisfied and unhappy; it’s a career that doesn’t allow your character abilities to develop fully.

In contrast, this is very different from having your typical bad day at work!

When you’re in an unfulfilling career for the long term, you feel stuck, disgruntled, lost, frustrated, and well, unfulfilled about 80% of the time.

When you stay in a career that makes you feel this way for long periods of time, there are side effects and none of them are good!

Consequently, you might not notice it immediately if you’re not being intentional about engaging in reflection and self-awareness.

You might not notice your unfulfilling career immediately if you’re not being intentional about engaging in reflection and self-awareness. Share on X

Physical Effects of Being in an Unfulfilling Career

Indeed, being in an unfulfilling career for an extended period leads to burnout and work-related stress that affects your physical health too.

Work stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when the job requirements do not match your capabilities, resources, or needs (source).⁠

Did you know that 94% of American workers report experiencing stress at their workplace?

Likewise, 23% of the 94% describe their stress level as high and 6% describe their stress levels as unreasonably high.

Particularly, that report was in 2019. Still, after this past year (the COVID-19 pandemic), I’m positive that the number has gone up.⁠⁠Therefore, the statistic shows that work stress is the rule, not the exception, especially experiences of HIGH work stress.⁠⁠Are you one of the 94% of workers experiencing work stress?⁠As you can see from the definition, a major cause of work stress is misalignment between you and your career.

When you’re in an unfulfilling career, you might see some physical symptoms, as revealed and backed up by research.

Some of the physical effects of being in an unfulfilling career are:

High levels of fatigue
Headaches
Heart Palpitations
Ulcers (from all that worrying)
Weight gain
Weight loss
Hair loss
Insomnia and other sleep issues
Diarrhea or Constipation
Skin Issues

Work-related stress that occurs in an unfulfilling career puts you in this constant state of hyper-awareness and hyperarousal that messes with your body, hormones, and brain.

For instance, think about the flight, fight, or freeze response. When you work in a place that has you constantly on guard, it triggers that reaction.

Think about the flight, fight, or freeze response: when you work in a place that has you constantly on guard, it triggers that reaction. Share on X

Mental Effects of Being in an Unfulfilling Career

In addition to the physical effects, there are also mental health impacts of being in an unfulfilling career. These mental health effects can be a lot more insidious.

Research has linked work-related stress to symptoms such as:

Higher levels of depression
Anxiety
Irritability
Pessimism
Aggression
Less Creativity
Low Motivation
Higher disengagement and isolation
Mood Swings
Relationship Issues

Also, individuals who are in an unfulfilling career report higher levels of divorce and lower sexual drive.

So, what am I trying to say with all this?

Your unfulfilling career just might be killing you slowly. At the very least, it’s killing your relationships and your overall life satisfaction.

Have you been experiencing any of the symptoms that were discussed in this article? Did you find yourself confused because you didn’t know what was happening, what the source is, or why you’re feeling this way?

If so, then now is a really good time to reflect on your career and your career satisfaction!

A lot of times, physical and mental health issues that are linked to work can go unaddressed. Why? Because we often don’t stop and consider the influence of our career on our wellbeing.