“My whole life was my job. I literally took my job so seriously and spent my weekends thinking about it,” Lisa told news.com.au. Photo / Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
“My whole life was my job. I literally took my job so seriously and spent my weekends thinking about it,” Lisa told news.com.au. Photo / Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
When Lisa was working in Sydney, her career was her whole life - until she found out her sister had cancer.
Lisa, 28, worked in influencer marketing. She checked her emails on weekends and found it hard to switch off from work.
“My whole life was my job. I literally took my job so seriously and spent my weekends thinking about it,” she told news.com.au.
In her 20s, she moved from Townsville to Brisbane to Sydney.
She was eager, young, and driven, and was amazed and thrilled by the career opportunities. It all felt so important until it didn’t.
Generation Z is the least happy generation at work, with 50% being unhappy with their career progression and opportunities with senior leadership. Photo / Campaign Creators on Unsplash
When her sister, who is now cancer-free, was first diagnosed, Lisa decided to move back to Townsville to be with her; it was a “silver lining” in an unthinkable time.
She left the job she loved because remote working didn’t make sense fulltime. The 28-year-old then found a local marketing job and didn’t enjoy it as much.
“I didn’t feel fulfilled in the role, and I didn’t get to be creative,” she said.
Even though Lisa wanted to enjoy her work, she just wasn’t, and she was also in a position where her sister’s health had really put things in perspective.
“I didn’t want to be in a position where I didn’t enjoy my day anymore. You should be doing something you feel happy doing day to day, and you shouldn’t be waiting for the weekend,” she said.
“I think if I was still in Sydney, I wouldn’t have even reflected on, ‘Is work bringing me happiness?’ Am I doing something that brings me joy?’”
The 28-year-old is the first to acknowledge you shouldn’t get all your happiness from work, but if it starts to impede on your general happiness, well, then you have a problem - you shouldn’t ignore it.
Work unhappiness isn’t uncommon in Australia. Job search platform Seek has released its inaugural Workplace Happiness Index. It surveyed over 1200 Aussie workers, and only 55% said they were happy at work.
Generation Z is the least happy generation at work, with 50 per cent unhappy with their career progression and opportunities with senior leadership. Baby boomers are the happiest, with 61% declaring their contentment.
In Lisa’s case, she wasn’t prepared to stay unhappy. Even if the job was technically fine, that didn’t mean it was worth staying in - even the potential for career progression wasn’t something she found “exciting”.
So, after five months, she resigned.
“It felt really good. I thought it was going to be nerve-racking. I know not everyone has the ability to quit their job because they don’t enjoy it,” she said.
It also helped that moving back to Townsville was more affordable; for instance, she was able to buy instead of rent.
“My mortgage is cheaper than my rent was in Sydney,” she said.
Townsville is more affordable than Sydney. Photo / Greg Bowker
Right now, she’s freelancing and marketing for her mum and dad’s business. She’s got enough work that she hasn’t had to take a pay cut, but most importantly, her general happiness has increased.
She’s not heading to work and waiting for the day to be over; she’s enjoying her work and her daily life, and it has made her feel so much better.
“It was impacting me so [much] mentally that I was in an office eight hours a day and not feeling fulfilled by it,” she explained.
