Even those of us that love our jobs can have days where
office life just seems like a terrible punishment from the beyond. If your job
is crushing your soul piece by piece, here are some ways you can deal with the
pain and suffering of office life.]
10. The Mild Annoyance of Eating at
Work
The need to eat at the office doesn't really feel like hell—at least
not the eternal-pain-and-agony kind. It's more like the constant splinter in
your skin that just keeps annoying you all day. You have to deal with the
always-unappealing brown bag lunch, eat at your desk, and deal with nasty
coworkers stealing your food. Of course, there are ways to deal with this
problem—specifically, make your
brown bag lunch more appealing, make it
something that's keyboard friendly, and if you really can't deal
with the office thieves...just stick some
laxatives in the food and call it a day.
9. The Challenge of Staying Awake
The next level of hell, slightly more annoying than food, is the sheer
boredom of your job. Between meetings, mundane tasks, and listening to your
coworker's all-to-detailed story about her cat Mittens, it's like your job is trying
to put you to sleep. There are a few things you can do to help keep yourself
awake, both at your desk
and during
excruciatingly boring meetings, but you can also give into the
temptation and sneak yourself a nap at work. Power naps
are the best way to go, and with a few
strategies, you should be able to get through a quick nap without
anyone the wiser.
8. The Constant Paranoia of Being
Monitored
Whether your office has a simple web filter on your computer or they're
monitoring your every move, it can make life very difficult. Here's how to
tell if you're being monitored at work, and what to do about it if
you are. And if its web filters that are the problem, you can always bypass them
with your own proxy server, or by grabbing some
portable apps and turning a thumb drive into a tiny privacy toolkit
to browse without a trace.
7. The Temptation of Constant
Distractions
There's always something nagging at you to ignore your work and do
something to take your mind off the slave driving, whether it be browsing the
web, talking with
a coworker, or push
notifications from all directions. If you really want to focus while
you work, we've got
some tips to help you out. If you can't figure out exactly what's
distracting you all day, I really recommend using a time
tracking program like RescueTime to find out—it'll make it a lot
easier to crush those distractions once and for all.
6. The Exhaustion of Long Hours
If you haven't actually counted how many hours you work in a week, it's
time to start—and if that
number's over 40, you may have a problem. Not only is it exhausting,
but it can even lead to
health problems like depression, so you need to take charge. At the
end of the day, go the f**k
home. If you need more motivation than that, there are a
few things you can do to make leaving your work behind easier, too.
5. The Sacrifice of a Not Getting Paid
You'd think a hellacious office job would at least pay well, but sadly,
that's just not the case. If you're unhappy with the money you're making—and
remember, the new salary
happiness tipping point is about $50,000—it's time to see if you can
get a raise. Don't be
tough, be honest, and do your
homework beforehand. You're a lot more likely to get paid what
you're worth with a well thought out negotiation than going in angry.
4. The Nagging Pain of RSI
You sit at a desk all day, and not only is
it making you fat, but it's destroying your eyes, wrists, back, and
the rest of your body, slowly and meticulously. The best thing you can do? Take
some time to ergonomically
optimize your workspace and change your habits for pain-free office
work. And if you're having a problem with eye strain, there are a
few things you can do in that area too—including trying out these
Lifehacker-tested computer glasses.
3. The Stress of Problematic Coworkers
Distracting
coworkers is a mild annoyance, but the truly difficult people are a
whole new level of hell. You can't change other people, so the best thing you
can do is focus on your
own triggers to deal with difficult people. And, if things get
really out of hand, you can complain
about them to management without getting them in trouble. Of course,
you could always just tell them you
don't like them, too (without being an asshole).
2. The Agony of a Horrible Boss
If your office is hell, your boss is the devil, slowly driving you into
madness faster than everything else. Maybe he steals your
ideas, or maybe you just dream about
killing them because they're so bad at managing. We've talked a lot
about how to deal
with every kind of crazy boss, and how to
effectively complain about them on the off chance you can actually
get them to change.
1. The Frustration of Quitting with
Your Sanity Intact
Deep in the bowels of office hell, the thing that nags you the most as
you endure hours and hours of torture, is whether your job is actually so bad
that you should quit. After all, jobs aren't growing on trees these days. If
you've gotten so
miserable that you just can't survive your job anymore, it may be
time to quit. Take some
time to prepare yourself for the jump, and make sure you do it with
all your contacts and class intact—you may hate everyone at your
current office, but they can still be helpful to you in the future (and they're
a lot less horrible when you aren't with them all day long). Lastly, if you're
looking to get out of the office gig entirely and start freelancing, you may
want to wait a bit—you can start
freelancing without quitting to see if it's really right for you—because
sometimes,
it's really, really not, and being jobless is an entirely new type
of hell.
If you have any of your own tips for dealing with a
hellacious job, be sure to share them in the comments section below. And for
those of you that love your job...why don't you just go sit in the corner
quietly, alright?
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