“My job is boring.”

“I’m in a rut.”

“I wish I could take the day off tomorrow.”

“This career just isn’t for me.”

“There must be something else out there.”

“Maybe it’s time to start looking.”

Do you ever find yourself having thoughts like this about your career? You’re not alone. In its 2021 Work and Workplace survey, Gallup found that fewer than 50% of employees are truly satisfied in their work. Think about that! Although many of us spend the majority of our waking hours on work, fewer than 50% find that work truly satisfying.

There are many scenarios you may have found yourself in when it comes to being unsatisfied in the workplace. Maybe you once enjoyed your career, but circumstances in your life have changed and motivation has become a real challenge. Perhaps your role at work has changed in ways that no longer connect with who you are or what you want to be doing. Or, maybe earlier in life you landed in a career by happenstance and it’s never been a great fit. Whatever the situation, you may be thinking about what else is out there and what career might be a better fit.

But, what if you could take actions to improve how you feel about your work without a career change? Is that even possible? The answer is yes. There are things you can do to boost enthusiasm in your career before deciding whether or not to move on. It may sound simple, and even counterintuitive, but there are actionable steps you can take to gain more satisfaction at work. Here is one of them:

Volunteer

Instead of relying solely on your job description for satisfaction, you can voluntarily take on work that means something to you. One key to satisfying work is meaning. In a survey conducted by Project Energy and Harvard Business Review, meaningful work was found to be the highest factor driving career satisfaction for participants. Results revealed that employees who experienced meaning and significance in their work reported 1.7 times higher job satisfaction and were 1.4 times more engaged in their work.

How does one define meaning? Meaning is different for different people. For a university professor, it may be about scholarship and sharing new ideas. A healthcare professional may feel there is no greater meaning than caring for those in need. The bottom line is, meaning in work and life is about engaging in activities that are deeply connected to what matters to you and why.

Here are some examples of volunteering in the workplace:

woman professional mentoring younger woman professional

Serving as a mentor to a junior member of the team
Joining an employee volunteer program sponsored by your organization
Taking initiative to create a program beneficial to your team, such as skills training or a new system to improve efficiencies
Becoming a member of a relevant professional organization, or taking on a larger role there

If you’re like most people, the thought of adding another task to your plate can be extremely overwhelming, especially when you’re already feeling unsatisfied and unmotivated. However, the spark of excitement and motivation you may gain from engaging in something larger than yourself will often produce more energy to carry you through, and the benefits can span into other facets of your life.

In fact, when looking for meaningful ways to volunteer, search for opportunities outside of work as well. After all, we’re not just what we do for a living. Because of the interconnection of work and life, the benefits of engaging in something meaningful in our personal lives can often have a positive impact in our professional lives as well.

Early in my professional life, I was hired as a paralegal for an international law firm that had just set up shop in a new area. On my first day, I was told to sit tight as the business development team got to work signing clients. As these things go, I was “sitting tight” for a period of about 3 months. It was excruciating to not have any work to do day after day. As leisurely as it might sound to be paid for doing nothing, surfing the internet in the early 2000’s lost its charm after the first 8-hour day.

Without satisfying work (or any work at all), I began to crave meaning and contribution, long before I knew this was vital for career satisfaction. I wanted to feel like what I was doing had value and mattered in some real ways. While I didn’t see a way to break the monotony at work, I did realize I could contribute in my personal life. That’s what eventually led me to serve as a mentor in a local youth organization.

This mentorship program was the best thing I could have done at that time. It was a remarkable feeling to be involved in something greater than myself and to be contributing to a young person and a community in such a way. The positive energy I felt from that experience overflowed into my work and provided me the inspiration to find ways to make better use of my down time in the office.

There was an extra benefit: Not only did volunteering on weekends provide a sense of purpose and meaning that helped me get through a challenging time in my career, it eventually led to a new job several years later. That’s right. Not only can volunteering help increase meaning and therefore enthusiasm and well-being in both work and life, it can grow your network, further your skills, lead to future career opportunities doing something you love, and it may just boost your income.

In fact, career success and increased income is another benefit of increased meaning in general. A BetterUp survey revealed that employee participants who found their work meaningful were 10% more likely to have received a raise in the prior year and 5% more likely to have been promoted in the previous 6 months than those who found their work less meaningful.

To get started with volunteering outside of work, think about options and causes that fit with your passions, interests, skills, and values. There are many ways to identify these, but one easy way is to consult online volunteer boards. In one of its blogs, Volunteer Match provides advice on how to source and choose opportunities that are a good match for you. While there, search for opportunities in your area.

Bottom line: Volunteering is one way to try to increase satisfaction at work. You may feel overwhelmed with the idea of volunteering your time personally or professionally when time is already in short supply. Time can sometimes be a real obstacle, but keep in mind that you get to choose how many hours to invest on what and when. Ask yourself this, what else will you do to increase satisfaction in your work and how much time will that take?

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While there are things you can do to increase career happiness, there are situations and environments (such as a hostile or toxic workplace culture) in which a career change may be in order.

If you are on the job market, or thinking about a search, sign up for the latest guide, “Prepare for a Successful Job Search: 4 Basic Updates to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile.” Whether or not you are using LinkedIn (and I hope you are), employers are looking for you there. Present the best version of yourself online as well as you are in person.

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Want help navigating your career change? Learn how to make decisions on your career path with clarity and confidence. Take actions in your job search for increased career happiness and success. Schedule a conversation.

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Judy Gielniak | judy@acclifecoaching.com