Monday Morning Career Blues? (Winter/Spring 2008)
By Karen Litzinger, MA, LPC

The first strategy to beat the career blues is to assess what exactly is making you unhappy. This will help you determine how big of a change you may need, or if you can make changes to your current situation or yourself.

Career Field: How do you like your everyday tasks? Are you using your natural skills? Does it feel like a “fit” or do you feel different than most people doing similar work? Does the work inherently not match your values?

Specific Employer: Perhaps the field is fine, but it’s not working with this specific employer. Is there a mismatch regarding policies, philosophy, politics or ethics? Is your unhappiness about your supervisor? Or is it about specific working conditions like physical setting, location, and hours?

The Industry: Maybe the work and employer are fine, but you’re not interested in the services or products of your organization, so it is hard to get motivated.

You: Take a close look at yourself. Has this unhappiness followed you around from job to job? Can you do more to influence your current role?

©2008, Litzinger Career Consulting. Permission granted to reprint this article so long as the text and by-line are not changed and reprinted intact with all links made live.
Karen Litzinger, MA, LPC, owner of Litzinger Career Consulting, provides career counseling, job search advising, outplacement consulting, and business etiquette training. More information is available at www.KarensCareerCoaching.com