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Work

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Original poster

Back to work and don't care anymore

16 replies

bravelittletiger · 26/09/2022 10:18

I've just got back to work after my second baby and I am seriously lacking in motivation. I have a well paid and flexible job that I do largely from home but to be frank I just don't really care about the corporate bullshit anymore. Some of the same projects we were working on a year ago have barely moved on in the entire year I've been off and it's just the same old shit- "have you had time to review...x?"; "can you send me some time for calls..." etc. i feel so unmotivated even though I don't have any real alternative and need to work and know I want to work too for my own income and mental health. How do I get myself to care again?!

OP posts:

EmmaH2022 · 26/09/2022 10:20

I don’t think it’s possible to make ourselves care

just have to do the job to earn the money.

Echobelly · 26/09/2022 10:20

It might be time to look for a new role if you can stick it out for a little while? It's a good market for job-hunters; I'd got a bit weary of my previous role and found something very quickly although previously it had generally taken me a few months to find a new role due to it being a fairly small field.

Original poster

bravelittletiger · 26/09/2022 10:33

I'm sat here at my desk with 100 emails and a massive to do list and I'm not doing it. I just want everyone to leave me alone 🤣🤣. Could possibly also be pre- menstrual!

OP posts:

BackOnTheBandWagon · 26/09/2022 10:50

I'm in exactly the same position. Just couldn't give a shit right now. It was ok when I first got back after mat leave, but I had some time off for bereavement and since coming back from that I just have zero motivation. I think I need to change jobs, but was hoping I could hold out for a bit longer as I have great flexibility currently :/

Redqueenheart · 26/09/2022 11:13

It sounds like you need a new job.

I started a new role recently in the same sector I have been in for a couple of decades and I have realised I just can't do this anymore.

I switch off during all these pointless meetings, I hate the jargon and the endless bureaucracy.

Sometimes in life you just get to a point where you simply can't force yourself to care or carry on.

EmmaH2022 · 26/09/2022 18:37

I'll get flamed for this probably, but I am freelancing and looking to get salaried work again in order to buy a second property.

but I'm not sure I can face it. Freelance gets you out of so much crap. I know second property should be a bloody big carrot.

I had this post in my head on a client visit today. Imagine going back to pretending to care.

Tadpoll · 26/09/2022 19:39

I hear you OP.

I’ve just gone back to salaried work (4 days a week) after being freelance for a few years. I hate it. It all feels so meaningless, I hate the bureaucracy of the company and how disorganised it is. But most of all I hate not being able to work when I want and fit it around my kids.

I am seriously thinking of chucking it in already but I like the regular money!

EmmaH2022 · 26/09/2022 19:41

Tadpoll · 26/09/2022 19:39

I hear you OP.

I am seriously thinking of chucking it in already but I like the regular money!

Oh wow
so you've done what I'm thinking to do. Interesting.

Olsi109 · 26/09/2022 19:46

Same. I've just gone back 3 days and I just don't have the same care as I did before baby. My previous attitude was I went over and above. My current attitude is go in, do my job (well 🫤), but not give a crap if others don't do there's properly, not put the extra effort in, not pick up the slack, for 3 days and then feck off for 4 days off 🤣

Arpeggiator · 26/09/2022 21:23

You're me! I feel exactly the same. I hate feeling so 'meh' all the time at work, but I don't care about any of it. I find it really hard to actually do anything, I have no motivation and projects etc have barely moved on since I went on my second mat leave more than a year ago, so I feel like if no-one else gave a shit in the year I was away, then surely the whole thing is pointless? I come into work, make myself tea and toast and then just sit there, feeling like I want to cry, or curl up under the desk and go to sleep, or just walk out and never look back.
Sadly, there is nothing else out there part time in my extremely niche area, so I have to just sit out this angst or retrain. And I have no money or time to retrain so... this is it. And I have to work, as I am the main earner in our family at the moment, and I also need one part of my life that isn't to do with nappies and packed lunches.
I try to just not worry about these feelings, and just try and accept - this is how I feel right now- it won't last forever, it's better for my family that I am here, I am keeping my foot in the door for when the kids are older. I listen to my favourite albums on my commute, take a long walk at lunch (I work quite rurally so that's a bonus), and I treat myself to a pastry most days. Tiny, tiny things, but they help.

Tadpoll · 26/09/2022 21:29

I try to just not worry about these feelings, and just try and accept - this is how I feel right now- it won't last forever, it's better for my family that I am here, I am keeping my foot in the door for when the kids are older. I listen to my favourite albums on my commute, take a long walk at lunch (I work quite rurally so that's a bonus), and I treat myself to a pastry most days. Tiny, tiny things, but they help.

I need to do this - find the little things that get me through. I’ve wracked my brains for an alternative to this but I need the financial security right now so I think I have to just suck it up.

ThisIsNotAFlyingToy · 26/09/2022 21:34

You have to remind yourself that loads of people feel exactly the same way about work and they go through the motions with their "work face" on.

Farmageddon · 26/09/2022 21:47

You are not alone OP, I think a lot of these feelings are exacerbated by the endless corporate bullshit that is just everywhere. Company culture and boring meetings.

Most of us want to feel like we are doing something meaningful or useful, but if you peel away the layers we are just making money for a company or shareholders. Not very fulfilling.

Anyway, here's a fun way to waste a few minutes you should be working - it's a Corporate Bullshit statement generator.

www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html

Arpeggiator · 26/09/2022 21:53

ThisIsNotAFlyingToy · 26/09/2022 21:34

You have to remind yourself that loads of people feel exactly the same way about work and they go through the motions with their "work face" on.

Yes! And I found it helpful to open up to some colleagues (obviously a selected few, and in a much less honest way than I have been here) and it was really reassuring (to me) to hear that others feel similarly.

Arpeggiator · 26/09/2022 22:00

@Tadpoll I think it really helps. After my first mat leave I felt the same, not as extreme though, and for a while I felt so down about it and felt like it was a depressing indictment of modern existance. And yeah, it is, but like- at this point in my life, there's nowt I can do about it.

declutteringmymind · 26/09/2022 22:35

You get paid to do a job, not care about it.

I found it really difficult to get back to work, as I was exhausted, distracted, and I really didn't give a shit. So I pretended, and 8 years on my mojo is back.

What helped was reminding myself that if I'd left the profession, starting near the bottom would have been even more soul destroying than sticking it out until I was less sleep deprived and moody. Obviously your priorities were different before you had children, and you are working to give them and yourself a decent quality of life and a better retirement. It will improve, until just get your job done, and fly under the radar a bit.

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