5 Ways in Which Career Dissatisfaction can Affect Your Relationships

Work takes up a significant portion of one’s life, and people have expectations of what their job should be like. When these expectations are not met, it brings feelings of disappointment, bitterness, and lack of interest, leading to job dissatisfaction. This can be due to various professional and personal reasons such as lack of advancement, poor management, limited work-life balance, and more.

Although we usually develop our relationships and our career separately, they both might be intricately connected. People with workplace dissatisfaction tend to bring their problems home. This is normally because they struggle to manage the work that they are least interested in. Let us look at 5 ways in which career dissatisfaction can affect your relationships.

1. LACKING A WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Pursuing an unfulfilling career can affect your work-life balance. Sometimes, your work may make you feel like you have little control over your life. Like many, you may be terrified to stand up to your manager or, if you’re an entrepreneur, you feel responsible for every last part of your growing business. Your family or friends may often seem to be complaining about your absence or distractibility at gatherings or social events. When nothing goes right at work you may not possibly hope to be happy with anything else. You may start behaving rudely with your family. The change in your personality can take a huge toll on your family and kids.

2. WORK STRESS

When you are not happy with your job, you are much more likely to experience and report stress on the job. Workers who are satisfied or happy at work are much less likely to report feeling stressed out. The stress may drain you out such that you may barely find the energy to spend quality time with those you love. You may feel more withdrawn and isolated than you did in the past. And this may further affect your physical and emotional well-being.

3. NECESSARY AND UNNECESSARY COMPARISONS

Career dissatisfaction may affect our perception of the world around us. At times, you may find yourself making comparisons with those around you which may further add to your frustration. Sometimes, these comparisons can help you identify if your efforts are being rightly valued, such that equity exists, while other times, it can lead to envy, jealousy, or a host of other negative emotions including conflicts. It can worsen the quality of your relationship with those around you.

4. WORK RELATIONSHIPS

Sometimes dissatisfaction with work may arise from unfriendly peers. Interpersonal relationships at work can play a vital role in psychological well-being. In the long run, a lack of cordial colleagues can give rise to bigger problems like job dissatisfaction. Having better relationships at work may make your day more enjoyable by leaps and bounds.

5. FEELING DEVALUED

Sometimes you may feel that you are not rewarded enough for your efforts. You may feel as if no matter what you do or how hard you try to do things more to the liking of others, you are always under-appreciated. In a work scenario like this, it may turn out to be a major cause of job dissatisfaction. However, when paralleled with complaints at home for personal lacks and limitations, this can lead to intense sadness and disappointment. Some may even experience an inclination toward drinking and smoking, thinking that it would take your pain away and addictions to such substances may further lead to a spillover effect.

The adverse impact of career dissatisfaction can be reduced by making informed career decisions, better emotional regulation, identifying one's strengths and weaknesses, and using them for their growth. At Feel Better Counselling, by providing one on one counselling and group coaching we help and support clients like you make informed career choices, manage workplace stress and depression, and recover from alcohol use.

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Gurveen Singh

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*Reposted with permission from author. Original blog post: https://www.feelbettercounselling.com/post/5-ways-in-which-career-dissatisfaction-can-affect-your-relationships

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