When I was an attorney in a large national law firm, I was definitely not happy while at work. Fortunately, I was immersed in newlywed bliss, a vibrant social life, and the fun of living in a large city.
During the initial stages of work unhappiness, I tried to compartmentalize the situation. I was happy outside of work and not so happy while at work. Split life.
Then, I started noticing the inevitable creep of the work world into my personal time. On Sunday nights, I would get a bit blue. On Monday mornings, I would wake up a bit anxious. Some of my evenings were preoccupied with negative thoughts or worries about work. My decision to shift careers saved me from not only work unhappiness but life unhappiness.
I realize that historically, and throughout much of the work world today, most people were and are able to successfully keep work misery separate from personal life. The knowledge economy has a different dimension. Your work station is your mind. Unlike putting equipment back in place at the end of the day and leaving for home unencumbered, your mind goes home with you.
I do not mean to romanticize manual labor and other jobs that do not capture the mind. I also have full self-consciousness that career angst is a first world problem. But the pervasiveness of depression and anxiety stemming, in part, from career unhappiness, has a distinct cause:
Your work is in your mind. And, your mind does not shut off after work.
When I was 18, I worked on an assembly line for the summer. Very tedious, physically demanding and boring work. But I didn’t give my job a second thought after I left for the day — not simply because of the temporary nature of summer employment — , but also because there was nothing to think about in relation to work. My other jobs such as hotel bellhop, fast food cook, and waiter had the same feel. On the other hand, my work as an attorney was “in my head.” When I went home, thoughts regarding deadlines, clients, and demanding partners would stay in my mind.
In the knowledge economy, work-life invades our personal life because our work problems travel with us.
This invasion goes well beyond the technological onslaught of e-mails, texts, and calls that can make knowledge workers feel on call 24–7. I was recently working with a career counseling client who said she was sick of working 80 hour weeks. Her hours at the office were roughly 9–6 Monday through Friday. She put in a few hours at night and on the weekends. It seemed that she worked, at most, 55 hours per week and often less. But she really believed she worked “all the time” largely because she thought about work issues most of her waking hours. She was simultaneously seeing our company for career counseling and a therapist for her growing psychological deterioration. The one thing we all agreed upon: she had to shift jobs or career paths otherwise she was destined for unhappiness
As I tell all our career counseling clients, there is hope.
If she had a job she loved, then thinking about work outside of work would be happy making. I know this to be true both experientially and through countless career-changing clients who felt their personal lives were greatly enhanced when they found well-matched careers. When I think about work during my off hours, it is mostly a pleasant diversion. I’m engaged in solving challenges that interest me or reflecting on meaningful interactions. My Sundays do not have that slowly arising depressive feel of a weekend ending and my Mondays are not filled with anxiety. Instead, I’m often eager to get to work.
There has never been a greater urgency for work happiness since, in the knowledge economy, happy work very often equals happy life.