It’s not uncommon when you’re feeling stuck at work. You may be in a dead end career path or you may not have gotten the raise or promotion that you know you deserve. There are tell tale signs that lead you to feeling this way. It’s best not to ignore them and to tackle the problem head on.
It’s not a good feeling to feel stuck at work. The higher up you go up the corporate ladder, the harder it is to land the new position. In my prior company, there were 4 candidates all vying for a higher up promotion. Four rockstar candidates who was loyal to the firm.
That’s not even including any outside candidates that they were considering. If they were even considering any outside candidates, then it would’ve been even harder. Competition is stiff the higher up you go and that could be one reason why you’re feeling stuck at work.
It’s not as hard to move up the ladder when you’re in the lower end of the corporate ladder. However, the feeling of being stuck becomes more real the higher up you go. One interviewer told me a story of how she had an employee who wanted to be Vice President as quickly as possible.
So she would talk to her boss to give her more work to which her boss just sat her down and told her, “your career is a marathon, don’t be in such a hurry”. So she felt stuck at her job. She got out of the trap by finding another company and became Vice President there. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
What Does Feeling Stuck at Work Feel Like?
Feeling stuck at work feels worse than falling backwards. At least with falling backwards, you *feel* bad. However, with being in one place at a time you feel chained to your job. You’re not moving up and you’re not moving down, you’re just existing. Hoping something exciting happens to you.
No matter how much you give to the job, the job doesn’t give anything back. One of my former bosses at my internship gave her life to the firm. She would regularly work until midnight, work weekends, and so forth. She didn’t have a lot of a personal and social life.
The company promoted her as one of the youngest directors in the office. However, can you imagine if she didn’t get that status? How betrayed she would’ve felt by the company? While the story worked out for her in the end, these kinds of stories aren’t all uncommon.
The stories of where the employee gives their company everything and get minimal things in return. That’s like being in a dead-end relationship. There’s nowhere out and even if you go to another firm, there’s no guarantee that the work will be even better in the first place.
It feels like you have no other option but just to exist. Wait until something good happens by applying to a couple of places here and there. I’ve been there before and trust me when I say it doesn’t feel good. It feels downright awful. Feeling stuck at work is bad because you spend 1/3rd of your life at the job.
Why You’re Feeling Stuck at Work
One reason why you’re feeling stuck at work is because you’re not SMASHING that social share button and posting to your favorite social media! Your friends could need an article like this and it could help them out.
So with that said, here are the reasons why you’re not feeling like you’re moving forward.
1) You’re Not Paid Enough
You don’t know what to do about this. You don’t feel like you’re paid enough but you also know that there aren’t many companies who even pay six figures in the first place. So you’re out of options unless you interview with one company who has the budget to pay you what you deserve.
It’s not a good feeling to know that you’re giving everything you can for the company and aren’t even compensated for it. It’s time to have those conversations early and often. Raise the issue with your boss. Tell him or her how you feel. You’ll be surprised how many companies are going to be more than willing to give you a raise.
Many people are afraid to ask for raises because they think it’ll damage the relationship. No, it’ll actually help the relationship because you’ll be happier. Companies can afford to give out more raises than you think. Don’t listen to the BS spiel that HR gives you. They can pay you more than you’re making right now.
2) You Have a Bad Boss
This one hits very close to home. You don’t know what to do about your boss because your boss is your superior. If your boss outright refuses to change, then it’s over. What’re you going to do? All you can do then is to go over his or her head and talk to their superior.
However, there’s also the chance that their superior sides with your boss as well! What happens now? You’re out of luck. The lower you are in the corporate ladder, the worse you will be abused. And lower employees have no choice but to be abused because they have no real assets to fall back on.
They have to continue working until they can put food on the table again. It’s a dangerous place to be in. Feeling stuck at work. I felt stuck at work yet still had to turn down two offers in the year because the money didn’t work out. The cost to switch jobs is pretty high.
3) Finding a New Job is Difficult
Companies make it harder on employees to find a new job. The higher the switching costs, the less likely employees will switch. It isn’t as simple as apply, get a good offer, and work with a good culture. It doesn’t work like that. Feeling stuck at work reaches beyond that.
Many companies wanted me to go through “case interviews” where they give me homework to complete over a weekend. Then on top of that, they had five more rounds of interviews. And that was just for one company. I was juggling multiple companies at a time, it was too much for me to handle.
And on top of that, I had to provide good work to my current company. Who wanted me to work weekends. Finding a new job is very difficult. It’s not a walk in the park like do a couple of good interviews and get hired. Finding another job is so difficult and that’s why you’re feeling stuck at work. It feels like you can’t do anything about it.
4) Feeling Stuck at Work Because You Can’t Walk Away
How great would it be to be in a position to say, “nah, I don’t wanna do this” and walk away? Every time you felt like you didn’t want to do something at work, you could just walk away? It would be great to be in that position. However, it doesn’t work like that.
The vast majority of us need a job to provide and put food on the table. Walking away is giving up, which I don’t encourage anyone to do. We have to fight for our lives. We give and fight until we physically and literally can’t fight anymore. Which doesn’t happen to us that often.
You’re feeling stuck at work because walking away is not as simple as everyone says it is. Many of my coworkers told me, “I’ll walk away after the bonus without a job because I am fed up“. Not a single one of my coworkers actually followed through with that. Walking away is not as easy as it seems.
5) The Job is a Dead End Job
There truly are jobs where the company doesn’t care to promote you. These are jobs where you will have one specific job for the rest of your life unless you get lucky and network your way up. This is when you may be feeling stuck at work. Even if they told you upfront that your job won’t change, it still doesn’t make it any better.
Dead end jobs frustrate the ambitious and the ones who are trying to move up the ladder. There literally is no more ladder to climb up because you’re literally at the top of where you could possibly be. Dead end jobs are dangerous to your psyche if you are a motivated person.
One of my coworkers freely took the job fully knowing that they’re not going to move up. All he can get are raises to his pay. However, he’s not going to move up. No jobs that are going to make meaningful and impactful decisions for the company. That’s literally being stuck in one place.
6) You’re Not Growing
A job should be challenging. It shouldn’t be so challenging to the point where you pull your hair out. But it shouldn’t be so boring that all you do is copy information from one area to another. No copy paste jobs, they are just data entry jobs. You need to be able to grow in your position and develop.
You’re feeling stuck at work because the job just bores you out of your mind. We have a dying need to keep moving up. We need to grow intellectually in order to not remain stagnant. Who wants to spend an entire year only to end up at the same spot? Not a whole lot of people.
It’s frustrating when an entire year went by and you didn’t achieve any progress. Small progress is fine but no progress is horrible. If we fall backwards, we have an insane drive, need, and want to move forward again. It makes us feel something. If we are in the same place, it just makes us feel bad.
7) You’re in the Wrong Industry
You’re feeling stuck at work because you’re in the wrong industry. There are some smart people in the world but they don’t get paid well as others because they’re not in the right industry. Some of my smartest friends worked in public accounting. Their starting pay is traditionally the lowest out of all the business majors.
While some have moved up the ladder, they’re not making as much money as they could have had they just gone with another major. Some of their GPAs were in the 4.0 range. Yet they didn’t get paid as much as some of my other friends. The industry matters more than you know.
There are people much more capable and smarter than me out there. Most of my friends are like that. However, I get paid more than them because I stepped foot in the right industry. I do not feel stuck at work anymore because of how great my job is currently.
8) The Company is not Willing to Move You
No matter how good your performance reviews are and how good the recommendation letters are, some companies downright refuse to move you. Apple is notorious for this. Apple does NOT take moving kindly. When you take a role and a job at Apple, that is your role for the time there.
Feeling stuck at work is because the company just refuses to move you around. My prior company was great at moving people around to another part of the business they could do better in. However, that’s not every company out there. Some companies do not care about our long term happiness.
If you want to leave, then so be it. They’ll just find another person to fill your role anyway. You’re feeling stuck at work through no fault of your own. Sometimes, it’s from things that’s beyond our control. There’s just no good way out in this case, besides finding another job.
9) You’re Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again
Lastly, you’re feeling stuck at work because there’s nothing new and interesting things you’re doing. The prior company I worked for had a department who just did the same deals over and over again. Nothing different day in and day out. That’s why you don’t feel like you’re moving forward.
At a certain point, that just becomes way too boring. You’re not a machine. You’re a real human being who need a variety of jobs in order to keep things interesting. Variety is the spice of life. If you’re not getting it at your job, it’s time to look elsewhere.
Many of my friends confided that doing the same thing over and over again for over two years is what led to them searching for a new opportunity. There are better jobs out there. It may take a while but all you have to do is put in some effort to look for them.
Don’t Ignore Feeling Stuck at Work
It’s not a good feeling. Feeling stuck at work makes you want to rip your hair out. We spend so much of our waking moments at work, it has to be something that you’re interested in. You want to feel like you’re moving upward, like you’re moving somewhere.
When you ignore it for too long, the company just assumes you’re fine with it. Whether we like it or not, at the early stages of our career, we need to put in the effort. We need to sell ourselves, move around, jump around, network, talk to many different people as we can.
Look at Obama. When Obama first started, his speeches were full of life. He had to be energetic in order to excite the masses. He had to sell himself and prove himself worthy to earn the people’s vote. However, once he became President of the United States, he actually became more reserved.
His speeches were calm, it wasn’t full of life, it’s more of a presidential speech. Only once you truly make it can you slow down. Until then, you’re going to be feeling stuck at work. You’re going to have to put in the work in order to get ahead. Move around, do work, and make things happen.
A year is too long of a time to ignore the feeling of being stuck at work. You have to do something about it otherwise people are going to think you’re happy with the outcome. Ignore the feeling at your own peril. Your happiness depends on the job in more ways that you know.
9 Ways You’re Feeling Stuck at Work Shortlist:
- You’re not paid enough
- You have a bad boss
- Finding a new job is difficult
- Feeling stuck at work because you can’t walk away
- The job is a dead end job
- You’re not growing
- You’re in the wrong industry
- The company is not willing to move you
- You’re doing the same thing over and over again
