AIBU to have ‘gone off’ working?

[haribofiend]

Okay so I realise I am unreasonable!

But does anyone else feel the same?

I’m not a lazy person, have always worked v.hard, too hard at times, if anything!

But lately (since Covid / lockdown, but maybe it’s just a coincidence) I’m so fed up of it. I’m not in the wrong job - I like my work well enough… but not as much as I’d like leisure time I find I’m wistfully looking forward to retirement, and I’m only 34!!

I’m a bit shocked at myself tbh. Is it just me who’s had this change of heart lately and needs a big old boot up the bum?

@hamstersarse

There is also a strange dichotomy emerging in that I hate wfh but I also cba going into the office

I have to go to the office on Thursday and genuinely just cannot be bothered, yet I also cannot be bothered to sit at my home desk either.

I used to be easily pleased

Yes! I know I have a much more interesting happier day when I go in, but I still don't want to go.

I wonder how many of the posters have had Covid, like me? Are energy levels just different after Covid?

@DolphinDreams

I wonder how many of the posters have had Covid, like me? Are energy levels just different after Covid?

I had covid a year ago, but I ran some of my best times ever during the summer, so I don't this it's lack of physical energy, just mental energy as it relates to work.

Me totally. Just can't get interested in it at all

No idea what you’re all talking about, I love my job and can’t wait to Mondays. Only kidding - I feel exactly the same. I constantly worry that I’m being lazy - so refreshing to read this thread.

I think it’s a mass burnout event

So what's the answer, what can we (I) do to shake this off?

@hamstersarse yes completely dissatisfied with the office and home it’s all fucking tedious crap

@DolphinDreams

I wonder how many of the posters have had Covid, like me? Are energy levels just different after Covid?

I had covid in august but tbh I've been lucky and had no lasting effects, even when I had covid it wasn't that bad

I did office admin. Last few tempings were crappy. Feeling demotivated now. Then interviews nobody gets back to you. Sigh.

I think it’s remarkable that I’ve managed to do an OK job (not amazing) with zero motivation. So we should all take credit for that

However it is exhausting to having to operate on self discipline rather than drive!

A colleague and I were discussing this very feeling yesterday. We thought it was Blue Monday, but that's not until next week.

I think it's a combination of the gloomy weather, post-Christmas lull, and the feeling that this wfh malarkey is here to stay.

On the plus side (maybe) we have a new CEO starting in a few months and rumour has it she's not such a fan of wfh. Though how that would potentially affect people who have been recruited on our new "location agnostic" strategy over the last 18 months or so, heaven knows.

@FreshandLively

So what's the answer, what can we (I) do to shake this off?

I think it's the uncertainty and constant change that is the draining thing

You can't plan anything, don't know what is round the corner, so you just become sort of helpless and it filters into work stuff

Does it matter if I don't start that project - it might be all change next week? What's the point

That, and also, the work I do really needs a few people on a problem to get a good answer, you can't do it all alone easily. So what ends up happening is that it is too hard to get started, overwhelming, so you don't bother. In an office environment you shout up "hey, what do you think about this?" it takes two minutes and the task is less overwhelming.

The solution for me is going back into the office. But I just don't have the impetus to even want that anymore.

Ironically, my performance is also being lauded as exceptional. I feel far from that I can tell you.

I also think the 'cos of Covid' excuse has become endemic in allowing for poor performance.

I wish I wasn't guilty of it, but I am. I was actually in work last week despite having Covid yet today have sent two emails saying "sorry for the delay, I was off with Covid". Totally not true, I had Covid but was 'working' I just CBA

I could have written that @SovietSpy ! Maybe we work for the same company......

@FreshandLively very boring, but I’m doing Dry January, have started taking vitamin D, and started eating more healthily, in a bid to increase energy levels and feel a bit better. Let’s see if it works…

However it is exhausting to having to operate on self discipline rather than drive!
Yes! I keep trying to identify the exhaustion: is it lack of vitamin D or B12? My thyroid? Turning 40? Small children? Or is it spending every day psyching myself up to make PowerPoints and spreadsheets to deliver the thing without actually ever delivering the thing because it’s all bullshit?

I also think the 'cos of Covid' excuse has become endemic in allowing for poor performance

My job hasn't really been affected by covid. However I find the time around it has of that makes sense. I now have to get there 45 mins early as the buses have stayed hourly. Meaning I have to rush back from school run in heavy traffic to get the bus.i walk in nicer weather but it's cold and wet at the moment so it's a bus am.hour early or a taxi.

If I go to the shop on the way through they have basically done away with till staff on favour of self service so then u r stuck waiting for approval for bottle of wine or something.

Plus my buses round here stop at like 6 so it's taxi or walk back late at night.

Its all.just so urgh... if I'm doing a 3 or 4 hour shift I'm paying 6 pounds on buses or taxis making the first hour almost free .

Really makes me wonder why the fuck I bother sometimes.

I mean I could drive but there's no staff car park and by the time I've found a side street id either have to walk in the pitch black dark ally which as a lone female is just what ya wanna do.

Or pay for parking which will.likely be no cheaper than the bus/taxi combo.

I'm the same. WFH has been shit and I'm planning a career change now but only because retiring 30 years early doesn't look like an option 🙁

@Echoesandsilence

I'm 32 and work in the finance sector. I got promoted to this role and I didnt want the promotion but didnt know how to say no. Overtime is expected but why does it have to be every day of the year? It used to be just in busy times of year which made it more acceptable.

I told them I want to leave for a quieter department. They told me if I stay I can have another promotion, increase in salary, bonus, change of duties etc. confused All I really want though is to leave and not be tied to the laptop and the unreasonable expectations of the clients.

Stay for now - take the promotion and benefits, keep coping while you stash savings, pay off bills and get prepped ready to walk away for good.

@SovietSpy

Same as most on here. Been wfh since March 2020 and only returned to the office 1 day a week in Oct time last year before wfh became guidance again. I don’t mind my job, but feel drained and unmotivated. I have tried many things to counter the feeling but it’s such a slog.

Main issues are:
I find online meetings really boring and tend to switch off if I don’t need to input.
Too easy to scroll on my phone throughout the day.
Lack of fulfilling goals for me/team as everything has just switched to keeping the business going over the last two years so genuinely hard to get excited about doing the same old stuff.
Most people have retreated with wfh so don’t you get any organic conversations or chats with people like in the office.
My company hasn’t been great at outreach and trying to keep a sense of company culture so I feel that’s evaporated and I feel more anonymous and less part of the company.
The meetings I do have feel pointless and I get annoyed about the waste of time spent on stuff that doesn’t matter.
It’s hard to learn new things or develop personally at home, there’s plenty of stuff I’m interested in but I’m currently lacking discipline to carry them through. I feel I have brain fog some days and worry I’m getting more stupid.

Someone up thread said everything feels transactional and that resonates. It’s hard to get up and feel motivated for that daily.

Are you me @SovietSpy ? You've articulated it so well. I volunteer for every blinking action group going at work - not really for my objectives- but more to try and give me some drive and focus. Doesn't seem to be working.

I am mostly out and about now, in a role that’s fulfilling in the respect of helping people having internally transferred from the hell of WFH full time..I like it but today is a WFH day and I have spent it so far attending a utterly pointless Teams meeting (I LOATHE them!!) eating biscuits, scrolling through crap on my phone, staring into space oh and attempting to do some half arsed housework. Team being 41 and retiring NOW god I relate to the term languishing

There is a huge, growing problem with regard to 'work' which needs addressing. It's not remotely unreasonable of so many people to hate their jobs when their jobs are awful (do read David Graeber for a better understanding of this).
Part of it is that so many jobs which are necessary, and either fulfilling/interesting in themselves or the sort of thing that isn't enjoyable to do but gives satisfaction from knowing that your work has made someone else's life demonstrably better, are atrociously paid and the people who do them treated with contempt.
I can't remember the exact quote or who said it (might have been someone like Eldridge Cleaver or Malcolm X) but it was along the lines of: there are jobs that need doing but the ruling class don't want to pay for them to be done. It was about jobs like repairing infrastructure in poor areas, running youth groups and playgroups etc as opposed to sitting in an office doing nothing particularly relevant other than generating money for your bosses.

This is why we need UBI - it would get rid of a lot of the utterly pointless jobs which effectively waste energy and resources.

Wow. I've met my people. So glad I'm not alone.

I've not been in the office since early 2019 - my mat leave ended just as lockdown hit cue wfh with 2 LO's. I am now completely burnt out. Feeling similar to others where I just cba. Nurseries are open so this past wee while should've been easier than 2020 but it's all just hit me.

I do think a change in jobs would help but where to start? I work part time and the hours suit so I feel stuck. Unlikely to walk into a part time role in the same sector.

I feel a bit like that. I used to love my job, but I just tolerate it now. It doesn't drive me in the way it used to. I work mostly from home and I think being away from the work environment has resulted in a detachment from the job.

I no longer care if my job is not absolutely stellar. I don't think anybody notices, anyway! Most of my colleagues seem to feel the same.

Others have put it much better than me, I just can't shake the lethargic feeling I have when it comes to work. I know for me it's partly the job itself. I work in the public sector and I'm so sick of constantly trying to find savings, whilst at the same time being given grants from central government for projects that needs to be spent yesterday and gets wasted because there's no time to plan. My job involves working with community groups and I'm hoping that as I get to do more of the face-to-face again that I'll get my enthusiasm back.