It started out so well.  You were so very excited on your first day at your new job.  The people seemed nice, the job interesting, and the first few days, even weeks, had you believing that you had absolutely made the best choice.  Challenges came your way, and you dealt with them well, learned, and moved on.  Soon you were feeling part of the furniture and enjoying the twists and turns that you were faced with.

So what happened?  Because now you can’t get yourself out of bed in the morning and into work on time most days.  You collapse on the sofa every night and don’t move an inch until you need to go to bed.  You work through your lunch hours and get home late because there is just too much to do.  You think about finding another job, but you just don’t have the energy to search.  You struggle to make weekend plans because you spend half of it “catching up” on sleep.  What are you going to do?

 

What Did You Think It Would Be?

Let’s go back to the beginning and figure out what happened.  Grab your job description.  Remember what was said about the role by any recruitment consultant you dealt with, or during your interview at the company.  Pull out all the notes and information you collected that was related to your job in the first few days and weeks.  What did you believe that you were hired to do?

What was it that you thought the job to be?  What was explained to you?  What’s changed within reason because of the changing needs of the business?  What were you told you were being measured against?  What performance indicators were you given?

By answering any or all of these questions, you will have a much better understanding of what you were led to believe the job entailed.

 

What Is Your Job in Reality?

Now think about what you do everyday.  What’s been added or taken away since you started?  What are you demanding of yourself that isn’t demanded of you in your job description?  What do people expect of you because that’s how it’s always been, your predecessor did it that way, or there is no one else nice enough to do it?!  What have you taken upon yourself to do?

What kind of tasks, processes, and activities do you do on a regular basis?  Who relies and depends on you to fulfil a particular role, task or function?  Where do you fit in in the bigger picture?  If you were to break down your day-to-day, how would you describe it in a sentence?  Glorified secretary?  Broken record?  Repeating event planner?  Report churner?  Fire fighter?

 

Mind the Gap

Let’s be clear here – you were hired to do the job they asked you to do.  Are you doing that job?  Or have you made it into something else because of your experience, interests, talents, and/or abilities?  Do you do work that belongs to others?  If you had to write out a list of the things you do day-to-day, week-to week, would they fall under the categories outlined in your job description?

What’s the gap between expectation and reality?  What gap have you created for yourself?  What gap has been created for you? If you were to scale it back to the basics as outlined in your job description, what would your days look like? What are the needs to have vs. the nice to haves?

 

What Next?

If you were to re-write your job description, what would be the bullet points listed under “responsibilities”?  Break it down.  What do you need to be doing to make it better for you?  What kind of things would you like to be working on?  Is the business ready for that?  Can your boss support you?  What is your boss willing to do to make it happen?

What are you able to take control of?  If you were to just cover the basics for a while, would anyone notice?  Have you become your own worst enemy?  What would the cost of scaling it back for a while and refocusing your energy be?  Are you really as overworked as you think you are?

 

Honesty is Really the Best Policy

None of these are easy questions to answer.  Sometimes it’s about being really honest with ourselves about how we’ve managed to get in our own way.  We like to go the extra mile.  We like to do our best.  We like to shine.  But when that is not being recognised, rewarded or even acknowledged, we sometimes do ourselves more harm than good by continuing to work flat out like that.

So take some time to realign your expectations.  Scale it back where you can.  Look to see if anyone notices.  Separate out the need to have from the nice to have.  Cover just the basics of your role so that you can’t get fired for not doing your job.  And then determine whether you want to stay or move on.  In the process, you may have regained your enthusiasm and energy to embark on a new job search.  Or you may be getting recognition for doing what you are meant to do really well.

 

Share Your Insights

What are you going to do as the next step in your journey?  What can you love about your situation just now?  Share your thoughts below.

 

Your First Stepping Stone

And if you are still not sure, contact me about my “From Job Adversity to Career Prosperity” programme where we can spend 6 sessions looking at this in a lot more detail.

 

Photo credit: The Lex Talionis / Foter / CC BY-ND