Every job is different, and what you don’t like about yours is different than what your roommate takes issue with—even if you both claim to love what you do. While you might loathe the administrative tasks attached to your role, someone else may appreciate the order and organization required to carry those responsibilities out. You may find yourself annoyed every time there’s a company-wide meeting, chock full, you think, of information you already know! But, your friend might value his organization’s weekly meeting.
Regardless of these differences, there are several parts of work that’ll always suck, no matter how generally loyal you are to the #ilovemyjob hashtag. Stop obsessing over them and be grateful that, all things considered, the very fact that you have a 9-to-5 that you like, is pretty awesome. So, in no certain order, here they are:
1. Doing Work That Doesn’t Excite You
There’s just no way that every hour of your day is going to be filled with stuff that gets your adrenaline going. It’s called work for a reason, regardless of how passionate you are about that work. You may be in your dream job (yay, you!), but you’re still going to get stuck doing tedious tasks. Learn to accept the fact that some pieces of the puzzle are going to be more fun than others, and you’ll soon stop getting annoyed every time you have to shift your focus to something decidedly mundane, like organizing the shared folders your team uses or devising an onboarding document for new hires.
2. Getting Permission and Approvals
Love your manager and your organization’s generous vacation policy? Like the work you’re producing on behalf of your role on the marketing team? Unless you’re in charge and are your own boss, you have people to answer to, a supervisor to speak to about taking time off, a team to pass ideas off of before they’re implemented.
In a perfect (or near-perfect) world, you’re comfortable requesting vacation time or speaking to your boss about working remotely one day a week. You’re confident that the spreadsheet you put together provides enough information to get your project green-lit, but, nonetheless, you can’t just do what you want, when you want. Chaos would ensue if that were the case, and so, in its place, is the necessary evil of asking for permission to do something and getting approved to carry something out.
3. Saying Goodbye to Colleagues
People come and go, sometimes voluntarily, other times not, and it can be hard when co-workers you genuinely like and care for leave the company.
Whether your friend’s moving on because she found an amazing opportunity elsewhere or because she was let go due to poor employee performance, when someone close to you leaves, it can really bring you down. It’s natural to feel upset, sad, disappointed, and listless. But, you’ll bounce back because you love what you do, right? And you’ll quickly realize that just because your colleague’s no longer a part of your daily life, it doesn’t mean you can’t be in touch with him outside the walls of your office.
4. Not Being a Part of the Decision-Making Process
Now look, even if you’re employed by an organization that values collaboration and individual input, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to have a say in each and every choice the higher ups land on. The HR department might decide to switch the company’s health insurance carrier, or the CEO may decide that the new office is going to be an open one. Your boss may decide that Mondays at 6 PM is the best time for your team’s mandatory meeting.
Inevitably, there’ll be things that you don’t get to weigh in on, and you won’t love or support every decision that’s made without your say-so. And, sometimes, even when your opinion is considered, you won’t get your way, and that’s as much a part of your career as it is about the rest of your life, so no point in letting it agitate you.
5. Disliking One or More People
It would be fantastic if you adored every single one of your co-workers, if you found fault in no one, and wanted to be BFFs with everyone. The more probable scenario, however, is that, throughout your tenure, you’re going to come across certain folks that just rub you the wrong way. And even if it’s a milder version of this (that new guy is so boring!), there will always be at least one person who you could do without. Since there’s no need to try and be pals with everyone, this is one of those things that you need to accept and stop caring about.
If you truly love your work, it should be pretty easy to overlook any of the above issues. Dealing with life’s obstacles is something you learn to do even in the dreamiest of jobs. Facing these common problems and accepting them for what they are is the fastest way to keep your head up and stay on your path.