Most women become unhappy at work when the work they’re doing isn’t aligned in one of 3 areas. In this blog post, I share what those areas are—these are the 3 misalignments that lead to career dissatisfaction.
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3 Misalignments That Lead to Career Dissatisfaction
Career dissatisfaction can be a soul killer. A slow soul killer. I’ve talked about the effects of being in an unfulfilling career before, but what exactly leads to dissatisfaction?
Misalignment.
Career dissatisfaction is when you’re unhappy with and in the work you’re doing. You don’t feel stimulated or challenged, you feel undervalued, you don’t like the environment, bosses and colleagues are toxic, and more. When you’re doing work that isn’t aligned with who you are, it causes you to be unhappy.
However, it’s easy to know you’re not happy in your career, it’s often harder to figure out why. That’s exactly what this article is about – helping you understand the why behind your career dissatisfaction.
So, let’s talk about the first misalignment out of the 3 misalignments that lead to the top seven causes of career dissatisfaction.
#1: Misalignment of Values
Your values are the beliefs and ideologies that you hold as important and dear to you.
Once you’ve figured out your values, they can serve as your compass in life. They drive your decision-making in both the small things and the bigger things.
When you’re in a career that does not align with your values, you will constantly feel discontentment and unhappiness.
For instance, imagine that you’re someone that values independence.
If being independent is important to you, you’re the kind of person that likes making your own decisions and choices. You enjoy having leadership roles. You’re not a fan of constantly being told what to do or having to depend on other people.
In short, you like having a say in your work and deciding how your work goes.
Career dissatisfaction can set in when you end up in a career where you can’t be independent.
You might be in an environment where you’re being micromanaged, which means that your actions are often closely observed. Your manager always wants to know what you’re doing. You have a boss or a supervisor that’s always hovering. The type that doesn’t give you any opportunities to lead, and constantly tells you what you should do.
Most likely, you’ll be in a position where you can’t take charge since your actions are controlled.
When that occurs in your career, friction happens. There’s friction between what’s important to you and what the organization is allowing you to express or who you have to be in the organization. As a result, it will ultimately lead to career dissatisfaction.
When you’re in a career that does not align with your values, you will constantly feel discontentment and unhappiness. Share on X#2: Misalignment of Interests
Another misalignment that leads to career dissatisfaction is when you’re not interested in the work you do. When your work doesn’t interest you, you’re naturally not going to be engaged in the work.
And when you’re not engaged or excited about your work, there’ll be a lack of curiosity about your work.
The main issue here is that excitement and curiosity are two of the things that lead you to happily get lost in the work you’re doing for hours. This is what psychologists call a state of flow, where you lose track of time and come out of the work feeling energized.
Regular involvement in tasks that you don’t enjoy prevents you from ever reaching your own state of flow at work.
In addition, when you’re unengaged at work, you can get bored. This boredom often leads to disinterest in putting in your best effort or even in showing up as your best self in your career.
When you remain in a job that doesn’t align with your interests, you’re always going to feel disconnected and stuck while you’re at work.
Although it is possible that you may have initially been interested in the job when you first started it, it’s important to remember that over time, you grow and evolve.
Which means that as you grow and evolve, your values, and sometimes, your interests might change and evolve too —automatically, the type of work that you enjoy will change as well!
#3: Misalignment of Skills
A skill is having the ability to do something well or have expertise in something in a certain area.
You should take note that skills should not be confused with abilities.
Abilities are things that are naturally occurring; things you are naturally good at.
While your abilities can be developed into skills, skills are always learned or developed.
Accordingly, this means that even if you’re not naturally good at something, you can develop your skill in that area. This is achievable if you have enough interest and motivation in doing so.
The issue that most of us fall into is that when we’re looking for work, we ask ourselves: what am I good at? and then we pick a career based on our answer to that.
The problem with this approach is that you don’t always enjoy doing the things that you’re naturally good at.
You don’t always want to spend time doing things that you have abilities in.
Your fulfilling career must highlight the natural abilities that you enjoy using and developing, not the ones that make you feel dissatisfied.
Your fulfilling career must highlight the natural abilities that you enjoy using and developing, not the ones that make you feel dissatisfied. Share on XI believe that a better question to ask yourself is: what skills do I want to develop? What do I want to be known for?
Those types of questions will help you discover the skills that you’re genuinely interested in developing or harnessing.
There you have it, the three misalignments that lead to career dissatisfaction. When your career isn’t aligned with your skills, your interests, or your values, it’s going to be pretty much impossible to truly enjoy your career.
