How to get satisfaction from an unfulfilling job

If you’re in an unfulfilling job or are dissatisfied with your work, it’s possible to get a fresh start no matter what the season. In fact, there are a few strategies that can help you find meaning and enhance your experience even as you slog forward.

A lack of fulfillment in your job can have intense effects. It can derail your motivation, your energy, and even your performance. And these, in turn, get in the way of your happiness at work and can impact your overall happiness outside of work too.

For many people, it’s hard to find meaning at work. In fact, half of workers in the U.S. reported that they lacked satisfaction in their work, and 38% said their job was just a way to get by, according to the Pew Research Center. In addition, half of people globally say their job fails to give them a sense of meaning, based on a survey by PwC.

So how do you create meaning when you lack it? And how do you set up the conditions for fulfillment in your work? Here are a handful of strategies that will make a difference.

Stay dedicated

One of the key ways to improve your experience at work is to stay dedicated to it. It’s tempting to check out, and it can be tough to devote yourself emotionally to a job that isn’t satisfying. Still, do your best to perform well, participate in meetings, show up on time, and follow through on your work.

Sometimes we wait to feel satisfied with our jobs before we get motivated to perform well, but research published by the Association for Psychological Science shows that employees who approach their work with optimism, dedication, and focus are more productive and more engaged. Their positivity ends up creating an upward spiral.

When you repeatedly behave with dedication, it will become a habit, with each action taking less conscious effort. You’ll also send yourself a message that your work matters. And even more importantly, that you matter.

In addition, behaving with dedication will affect how you perform and how others evaluate your contributions. When these are positive, it will pave the way to your next role and the greater meaning it will bring.

Find allies

Another surefire way to increase the meaning in your work is to connect with colleagues and build a sense of community. One of the primary symptoms of work that feels unfulfilling is being disconnected from others. If you don’t know your coworkers well or don’t feel like they know you or your work, it can make the work itself feel empty.

Having friendships with colleagues is tremendously helpful for finding satisfaction and happiness at work. A study published in the Journal of Theoretical Educational Science found that friendships are strongly correlated with both happiness and satisfaction, explaining more than a quarter of the differences felt by happy and satisfied people.

Additional research from KPMG finds that 84% of people say friends at work are very important to their mental health on the job. In addition, there is a 20% friendship premium in salary to have friends at work: Specifically, 57% of people would choose a role that pays 10% below the market instead of a role that’s 10% over the market for the opportunity to work with close friends.

Find people that you can admire and learn from. Invite them to coffee and consider asking them to mentor you or provide advice focused on your future. Also look for colleagues with whom you have things in common. Connect based on your shared interests or the projects you’re working together on.

Set goals and take action

It can also help to reframe your current role as a stepping stone. Identify where you want to go next and how this role helps you get there. It may be teaching you skills that can help you in your next job, and it could even be an opportunity to learn more about what you don’t want as you move forward. Both of these are constructive as you expand your self-awareness and your focus on what’s next. Consider what else you need to learn, both in terms of more formal education like classes or informal approaches such as learning on the job or from others.

The process of taking action is also helpful to your mental health because it reinforces your agency and helps you feel more empowered. 

Persevere through today’s challenges and focus on the future so you can keep moving forward.

Focus on the holistic 

Another way to bring more meaning to your work, surprisingly, is to create the conditions for happiness outside of work. In fact, there is a proven spillover between life and work. In a longitudinal study of almost 162,000 people published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, those who were happiest outside of work perceived greater happiness with their work as well.

The bottom line is that you can increase happiness and satisfaction in your work by considering your life as a whole and finding meaning and joy outside of work. Do things you love with your family, enjoy time with friends, volunteer in your community, mentor youth in your area. These kinds of activities will contribute to your overall sense of meaning and positively affect your perceptions of work as well.  

Ultimately, having a greater sense of meaning at work is one of the most important experiences to be concerned about, given how much time we spend working. We all have an instinct to want to matter, so when you stay dedicated, find allies, persevere, and think holistically, you’ll improve not only your work but your life as a whole.