How to Fall Back in Love with Your Job

by Carolyn O'Hara

Even exciting jobs have boring days. And when you’ve been doing the same tasks, going to the same office, and working with the same people day in and day out, you’re bound to fall into a rut on occasion. When that happens, how do you recognize what’s happening and counteract it? What can you do to revive your interest in your work? And how do you know the difference between being in a temporary slump and needing to leave your job?
What the Experts Say
“One of the toughest things about a rut is acknowledging that you are in one,” says Daniel Gulati, a tech entrepreneur and author of Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders. We tend to either plod along unhappy and dissatisfied, or overreact to the slightest hint of tedium and quit. “All of us have parts of our job that feel like a grind,” says Gretchen Spreitzer, professor of business administration at the University of Michigan. “But you have to look for the things in your everyday work life that give you joy, and find ways to bring more of those into your job.” Here’s how to revive your interest in your work.
Take action
Some people make the mistake of assuming that the slump will pass or that there’s nothing they can do. But you shouldn’t sit back and hope things change. Even small, incremental changes to your everyday work can prove transformative. The key is to take small actions, and to do so deliberately. “The vast majority of people lack a coherent, actionable strategy to get from dissatisfied to satisfied to wildly satisfied,” says Gulati. “But even the act of putting together some thoughts about what might improve your job tends to have a positive effect.”
Think about what you like doing…
Spend a few days mapping your energy and engagement levels at work every few hours. People often begin to notice obvious peaks and valleys to their days—times when they feel productive and engaged in their work, and other times when their attitude sours and their energy wanes. Use that information to pinpoint what tasks make you feel motivated and absorbed. We have a tendency to fixate on the aspects of our job that make us miserable, which can make us feel even worse, says Spreitzer. “Try instead to find the things about your job that make you eager and engaged,” whether it’s brainstorming with a small team, or interacting one-on-one with clients.
…And what you’re good at
“There’s a real correlation between what you’re good at, what makes you happy, and what other people are asking you for,” says Gulati. If you aren’t feeling good about what you are contributing or are struggling to find aspects you like, have a look through your inbox to see what expertise, tasks, and input people are requesting from you. Assuming you enjoy that work, perhaps you can shift some of your responsibilities or attention to be more focused on doing that type of work.
Redesign your role
Don’t assume that you have to leave your job or your organization in order to create a job that feels more fulfilling. “There are lots of ways to make changes around the edges of your job description to play more to your passions and talents,” says Spreitzer. Volunteer to take on a new project to give yourself exposure to tasks and departments outside of your normal role. Work with your colleagues to see if you can participate in different meetings or take more ownership of client relations. “It’s very rare that people reject a free, smart pair of hands,” says Gulati. “Try to start doing the job you want, even in a very, very small way.” And if you aren’t able to accomplish such shifts on your own, approach your boss. “Make it known you want more challenges that fit your goals and talents,” says Gulati. Your boss might have opportunities you haven’t considered.
Seek out passionate people
Our work relationships have a profound effect on how we perceive our jobs. And since passion can often be contagious, surrounding yourself with energetic people, whether at the office or in professional networking groups, can help revive a sagging interest in work. Attend professional networking events and mixers in order to meet peers. Meeting new people committed to their careers and explaining your own goals and passions to them can help renew your sense of mission and expose you to aspects of your job that you may not have previously appreciated. Or offer to mentor or teach new colleagues. “Our skills grow and deepen when we teach others,” says Spreitzer. And you don’t have to be a seasoned executive to be a strong mentor. Mentoring others can also offer new meaning to your everyday tasks, and “one of the things most associated with feeling energized at work is feeling like our work has meaning or purpose,” she says.
Celebrate your accomplishments
Don’t just keep a daily “to-do” list. Start keeping a brief “did” list each day with all the things you accomplished. It might be as big as acing a presentation or landing a new contract, or as simple as responding to a dozen important emails or filing your expense reports. But crafting the list can give you a renewed appreciation for the things you’ve been able to achieve for the day, which often produces a little emotional boost. “If we start lamenting the things that aren’t working in our job, it puts us in a more negative place,” says Spreitzer. Focusing on the positive can create a virtuous cycle. Reviewing your accomplishments can also help you identify what you’d like to be doing more of. “Then you can use it to build a bridge between what you have achieved and what you want to work on,” says Gulati.
Know when to move on
“You can have bad days, you can have bad weeks, but you can’t have bad months,” says Gulati. If you’ve tried aligning your responsibilities with your passions, networking with interesting people, and setting attainable goals and you still feel as though your job is more grind than gain, it may be time to take more drastic action. You might explore whether there’s a different role in the organization where you can bring more of your strengths. And if that doesn’t work, “it may be time to try something new,” says Spreitzer. Figuring out the path ahead can sometimes be difficult for ambitious, successful people, says Gulati, because they tend to have a lot of options. “Trying to adapt to the situation around us can be a really useful strength, but it can also be a gating factor when it comes to making progress in your career.” The key is to explore what you enjoy so you make the smartest jump.
Principles to Remember:
Do:

• Do a self-audit of tasks and responsibilities you enjoy.
• Make a regular list of things you’ve accomplished. It will give you a renewed appreciation for what you’ve achieved.
• Look for colleagues and other professionals who are engaged in their work. Their enthusiasm can be infectious.

Don’t:

• Dwell on what you don’t like about your job.
• Assume your job is fixed. There are often small, incremental changes you can make to your role that make it more enjoyable.
• Move on hastily.

Case Study #1: The power of enthusiastic peers
Corrie Shanahan was feeling restless. Though she liked the stability of her role as head of communications for the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which finances private-sector ventures in developing countries, she could feel her interest in her role beginning to wane. “I had just been doing it awhile,” says Corrie. “I found myself becoming less excited over time.”
Then a colleague invited her to give a talk about the work of the communications department at an orientation program for new hires. Corrie was surprised at how much she enjoyed the experience. “Having to articulate the mission of the organization to new employees reminded me why I was there,” she says. She soon began volunteering to speak regularly at the on-boarding sessions, finding that explaining the organization’s aims helped her to find renewed purpose in her work. It also put her in touch with newcomers “whose contagious enthusiasm rubbed off on me.”
She also took over leadership of the IFC’s professional women’s group. The role put her in touch with a wide range of women across the organization, which not only gave her a chance to network with peers but also to mentor younger women and build new relationships. “Meeting these women gives you more perspective on your own role and career,” says Corrie, who happily stayed with the job for several more years before leaving this year to found a consulting practice specializing in leadership and communication. “You have to find the things you currently enjoy about your job, and see what you could expand or amplify.”
Case Study #2: Taking on new tasks
Several years ago, Sarah Flanagan began to feel dissatisfied. She was working as an account manager for Events.com, an events registration software company, but didn’t feel as challenged as she would have liked. There was a lot of excitement and buzz inside the company around some new products in development, but Sarah felt isolated from those efforts. She knew she’d like to add more marketing tasks to her role because she really enjoyed them, but she didn’t know how to go about it. “It made me feel stagnant,” she says.
An opportunity to spread her wings came in a meeting soon after. The company needed a temporary marketing site for an upcoming product launch, but all of their developers were busy readying the product for the market. “I was just in the meeting as support staff,” Sarah says, “but I spoke up and said I’ve been taking HTML classes at night.”
She took over the launch of the temporary marketing site, and really enjoyed the experience. “I loved that I had something that I could physically look at and say I built this,” Sarah says.

Because she had done a good job, her bosses encouraged her to take on more marketing responsibilities in addition to her account management tasks. Over time, her job began to tilt more in the marketing direction, though she continues to retain oversight of some client relationships. She’s happy she’s been able to not only stay at the company, but also to shift her job into something that’s just right for her. “I come to work excited every day, and I hope to be able to do the same for years to come,” she says.