Pellau Magazine

Life is work. From adolescence, we’ve been taught to understand that life is largely defined by doing what you don’t feel like doing and going places you’d rather not go. In our aging, we’ve become accustomed to labor, to physically and mentally draining ourselves, in order to contribute to society and afford a Chipotle burrito once a week.


Looking back on it, since grade school, we’ve been bred to believe that life isn’t about doing what you want; it’s about making yourself useful. You must follow the path of your predecessors and work as hard as possible to be of worth. That’s all fine, but why does work have to be all stress and dread? There’s only so much of these emotions you can take and you must respect your own feelings and desires.

Just because you have a job doesn’t mean it’s the right one. There is a difference between paying your dues and wasting your time. Too many people spend too many years in jobs they resent, jobs that bring them no more sense of fulfillment than that of a biweekly paycheck.

I understand that doing something you don’t want to do builds character. Being a strong person means getting up every morning and facing challenges, whether you’re ready for them or not. Still, your entire life shouldn’t be a constant battle to get up in the morning; that’s just verging on masochism. Sure, there will be days when you just really don’t feel like going to work, but that shouldn’t be every day.

If that’s every day for you, then something is wrong. Something is wrong if you count the minutes, seconds and hours until the end of the day. Something is wrong if you can’t see being promoted as a possibility, or your career advancing from the job. Something is wrong if you feel stuck, out of options. Something is wrong if you hate the idea of another day, another week, another month doing the same job at the same place.

Life is too short and too precious to waste it passing the time at a job you hate. While it’s important to pay your dues, it’s also important to realize if that’s the situation, or if you’re just stuck in a dead-end job with no prospects for a brighter future. You’re too young to be settling now. Just because the world is scary and big doesn’t mean you can’t take risks without fear of failure. So if you’re miserable, uncomfortable and just generally unhappy, take a serious look at your life and your job and decide if now’s the time to take the plunge and quit.

You Dread Going To Sleep For Fear Of Waking Up
If you can’t even find solace in going to sleep at night, you must get out of there. There should be a small respite for those few hours between home and work; not being able to indulge in that for fear of tomorrow is unhealthy. You should be excited to get up in the morning, while also exhausted and content going to bed at night.

You Don’t Have Close Relationships With Your Coworkers
The relationships you have with the people you work with compose a large part of your happiness at work. If you get along and genuinely enjoy their company, then work is always more pleasant. However, if you have no close ties, no one to lend an ear to or exchange weekend stories with, then work can be miserable. Cut whatever ties you have and get out of there. There is absolutely nothing holding you back, especially the social aspect.

You Get Physically Ill When You Get An Email From Work
If emails, calls or any notification from work sends you into a spiral of depression, then it’s most definitely not a healthy work environment. Your work should incite feelings of excitement and happiness, not fear and anxiety. You should find opportunity in your work and look forward to its potential, not get repulsed every time your boss sends you an email.

You’d Rather Be In A Hospital Than At Work
If you dream of being sick, getting the flu, pneumonia, or even some fatal, life-threatening disease that keeps you in the hospital for the rest of your life, you gotta get out. If you would choose physical pain over the mental anguish of attending work then your priorities must be reevaluated. No one should ever hope to get sick, let alone to be stuck in a prison of their own bad health. Work should make you feel alive, inspired and genuinely productive. You shouldn’t dream of getting away from work.

You Dream Of Your Boss’s Death
It always starts with just a thought. That thought slowly sinks further, like venom, poisoning your mind and attitude towards the tyrannical figure in your office. You can’t think of anything else but the slow, painful death of your boss. Needless to say, this is an obvious sign that it’s time to leave, seeing as that demoniacal thought will not go away. Your negative thoughts will only become more intense, prevalent and recurring as the days pass. Do yourself and your boss a favor and get out, before things get ugly.:
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