Not motivated and focused at work...am I doomed?

[SadandConfusedWA]

My problem is that I basically have no life. My job is my life and without it I would be incredibly depressed and pretty much have nothing to live for.

Now you would think that this fact would make me put 110% effort and work very hard. However the opposite is the case.

 

I spend most of the time at work socializing or reading forums or else staring into the computer screen and thinking about men. I do my job barely. Basically I still do what's expected of me but I look for shortcuts and produce minimal basic results without even properly understanding what I am doing. There is also reading that I'm supposed to do for work that just keeps piling up but I read romance novels instead .

 

I'm not sure to what extent others are noticing this, but I'm pretty sure that they are. I get jelous when others are getting promotions and would absolutely die if I got fired. My performance review is due soon and I'm dreading this so much.

 

You would think that maybe I'm in the wrong line of work, but I was like this with every job I had in the past. I never got fired in my life but constantly kept looking for jobs that would make me feel more fulfilled which led me to this one. If you ask me what my long term goal is, it would be to stay where I am and get promoted. Then why the hell can't I focus?

 

I feel like I'm doing a barely average job and putting about 20% of effort into it when I really want to be brilliant. I waste an incredible amount of time fantasizing about men, shopping and trying to look good. Every single day I promise myself that tommorrow will be the day when I turn it all around before it's too late. However, tommorrow never comes.

[Citizen Erased]

I was exactly like this at my last full time job. I could have been perfect at it and received a promotion, better salary etc. But I had absolutely no interest in what I was doing. Because it was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

 

You may not know what you want in the future but rest assured it is not what you are currently doing. Because you will eventually find the right career path. And when you do you will change. Because you will be motivated to do so. But do not expect your ideal opportunity to just fall into your lap. You need to figure out what you want your career to become, noone on here can do it for you.

[glitzy55]

that pretty much describes my last job. I took a job knowing I was overqualified for it and had all my coworkers asking why I even took the position. There was pretty much no work for me to do. I spent about 7 hrs a day just literally staring at the computer screen and honestly if people noticed I didn't care. My company took advantage of people paying them pennies if they saw they could work you like a slave and sorry but I'm not a sucker. I was also the lowest paid person in the office, had coworkers I couldn't stand and a boss who was a 4 letter word. He told me during my review that I should be walking from from office to office looking for work. I tried that and got looked at like I had four heads. Any work I would be given would be putting pieces of paper away. I'm a smart girl and far from a slacker but I did my job requirments and that's it. So all this added me to being totally unmotivated. I got a new job now and love it. My advice to you..QUIT and find another job. To go into a place dreading it is not worth it

[blind_otter]

You might need to change jobs. Or you very well could be depressed and your lack of motivation is just a reflection of your inner emotional flatness. What do you think? I tend to think you're depressed if you've been this way with every previous job.

 

I've had the same problem and now I'm finally getting treated for my depression and it feels like I am very slowly peeking out from a fog. I do my work instead of goofing off, for the most part (haha) - a lot more than I used to anyways. Just some thoughts on your situation, take it with a grain of salt.

[NotKelly]

Maybe there is something about your office culture that contributes to your being unmotivated. I know I suffer from the same disease, but I've realized that the culture in my department contributes to it. I actually work very HARD, but there are some tasks I just don't feel motivate to complete because nobody else seems to care about them... it's like busy work. My supervisor never inquires about my progress, nobody else seems to think it's important for me to complete (and it's a load of work to do), and I feel like my work is going into a black hole.

 

The other day I asked my supervisor if he needed a report from me about the stats on this task... since he hadn't asked me for the stats in a while. He says, "Oh, Laura (his supervisor) only wants the numbers once in a while now." And I'm sitting there wondering... well, was anyone going to TELL me? Does nobody care whether I complete this task or not? Why am I wasting my time doing this task when I am so busy with other more pressing things? But I can't speak up and say that because I'm not the boss.

 

Now I still have to finish the task but I just don't feel like continuing with it.

 

Crappy management and nonexistent supervision can make you feel very unmotivated with low morale. It can be a real soul killer. I used to be a highly motivated employee, but over the years, I've pretty much had most of my motivation crushed out of me. That bothers me, but it still doesn't bother me enough to make me want to do work that nobody else in the organization seems to care about.

 

As for changing jobs... well, I've worked at this job so long that I feel like a loser and that I have no skills. I wish I could be honest in an interview and say, "Well, I'm looking to work at a company where people actually give a damn," but you can't say that in an interview because it makes you look like a whiner who had "issues" at their last job.

[norajane]

If you're doing everything but working when you're at work, what do you do in your free time? What do you do at home?

 

I agree with the others that this job is probably not the right one for you, but I also think that having nothing else going on in your life is draining you of any motivation to work, too. Kind of like, what's the point of succeeding anyway when you're not really interested in your life in general?