Mid Life angst

[middler]

Has anyone else got to mid 40s/ early 50s and had a sudden drop off the cliff of motivation in their work?

I was a sahm for about 7 years then returned to work so have been back 7 years now and in the last year I have just suddenly started to feel really unmotivated in my work which is pretty straightforward compared to the role I was doing previously where I hardly had a moment to even check the clock. This job is less pressure and more downtime and I don't know if I got so used to working under pressure all those years that a regular job just feels very unfamiliar somehow. It is not so easy to just leave without giving up a very good salary, excellent holiday allowance that would be hard to replicate.
I am the same at home just lacking in motivation to do those things around the house that need doing.

I think mid life is just a low point. So much responsibility- children, job, relatives getting older. Add to that ( for me at least) impact of bereavement, health worries , finances and I think it is all a bit much.
I am struggling at work - not the day to day and getting the important stuff done. More any corporate stuff ( clap trap), office politics, anyone pontificating about this, that or the other. I am sure I used to have more energy and more tolerance of other people. Now I just wish I could hide in a corner somewhere and read 📚.

I don't know what the answer is OP but you are not alone.
I am sure some people will be along to say it is the peri menopause/ menopause but I am not convinced tbh. Perhaps midlife for women is hard work and being fed up with it all is not necessarily all about hormone imbalance.

flowertoday, yes good points it is a certain stage isn't it, for us our kids still have a good chunk of school to complete so we are in the rinse and repeat cycle of school runs etc, my daughter is suddenly not wanting to spend much time with me so despite being on a 9 week summer break I feel a bit listless as she does not want to do the kind of things we did in summers past. That has been making me really sad as has the sense that time has past.
But I am also so lucky in that i have a lovely husband, not facing any life limiting illnesses as some poor people are, so I feel very irritated with myself for not shaking myself out of it because I feel like my hand of cards is one to be grateful for, but it is like this lethargy of apathy descended and I want to shake it off. I think I need to make more effort, I am leaning into it too much.

i agree with you completely op.
I’ve been working full time since 18, with only two 6 months maternity leave in there( which I wouldn’t call a break!) I’ve already been working 30 years!! Chuck in a divorce and house moves along the way..I need a gap year.
i had a slight change to my role last year at work and am training people my sons age on a constant cycle, who then leave after a year as not for them:-(
my parents both getting into their 70s who are divorced but each have had issues with their partners.
my husband now has a heart condition:-(
my youngest is the last at home approaching 16, so he’s been a dream child but I feel may change this next year.
I wake up each day full of angst over everyone else.I’m so busy on shift work and home life but also lacking energy/motivation.I’m doing everything on autopilot .What I really want to do is take a year off work and just travel, garden and read before the last 20 year slog, but could not do it at all financially or child restrictions .
you are not alone, I feel bogged down, demotivated and thinking “is this it?”

P.s I meant to add the teen doesn’t really want to do a lot of things with me now too so that’s a part of this feeling, he’s too young for me to go do what I want instead so I ending up waiting around in the hope he ll want to do stuff when I get my annual leave.
im lucky I have a good husband and a nice home though.

Everything you have said resonates so much. It is sooo hard to be motivated to do or look forward to anything. At this age, we become invisible in the work place, and over looked for any training opportunities or promotion. Our experience doesn’t seem to count, and prejudice and asumptions do exist against middle aged women. Menopause plays a big part, but is there more to it than just that? Younger people can be very unkind and talk down to you at work, but we don’t complain. It’s as if a life of serving everybody else’s needs above our own just becomes ingrained and expected, then people wonder why we become invisible non-people at this age.

Dobble, you have a lot on your plate, and yes you deserve a gap year.
Wheredidyoulastlook -yes I have really started to feel old compared to all the youngsters who have come into the workplace, it is such a strange feeling somehow to feel you are one of the older ones at work.

Can I have a gap year or 2 or 10? This thread screams so loudly to me it's unreal.

I work with a couple of people who are always upbeat and I admire them so much as they have been in the same place over 30 years and I just wonder if they are just superior humans for being able to be that way.

I’m upbeat at work… but all for show😯younger staff at work are mainly great but one or two just don’t know how to interact with you, they believe you have nothing in common with them