Why No Motivation at Work?

This is the most common problem for those who have been working for more than 5 years in a corporate world. Unlike when you have just graduated, you have very high motivation to work. You work from days to nights just to hope that you will be promoted next year. However after a while (~5 years), you have no longer have high motivation as used to be. Indeed, you’re having hard time dragging yourself into work every morning.

There are few reasons why this could be happening based on my own experience:

1. Your Effort Do Not Direct Proportional to Your Return

This simply means you give 150% and it doesn’t mean you will get 150% in return. You probably only get the 50% return if you’re lucky. In the corporate world, some incapable employees just get promoted not because they’re capable but based on the several of reasons (E.g. their job function, their networking, political reasons and etc.) Sometimes you don’t do anything, you will still get the 50% in return. More ridiculously if you very lucky, you get promoted somehow. So you wonder, should I put in extra efforts or less efforts? It seems like the return of putting extra efforts as compared to less efforts is not much difference. Why should I waste my time putting more effort if the returns are still the same?

2. You Have Your Own Mission and Vision

A company has a mission and vision. As an employee, we must follow the mission and vision. However, what if you have different mission and vision from your company? The direction where your company wants to go is totally opposite from the direction where you want to go. To be a responsible employee, you must follow the company’s mission and vision. However, the longer you stay with the company, the more distance you’re apart from your mission and vision because your company is moving towards a different direction. You may wonder, should I still stay here?

3. Your Boss De-motivates You

Your boss de-motivates you rather than the other way round. Some bosses are very good motivators but some bosses just suck. Yet they suck but their salary is much higher than yours. You start asking, why he/she gets so much money than I am since all the contributions are from mine, not from him/she?

4. You have Relationship Issues

There are many types of relationship issues. It could be your relationship issues with anyone (e.g. your boss, your colleagues and your sub-ordinates). These relationship issues make you out of focus in your work and basically you feel uncomfortable everyday when you go to work because of this screw up relationship. Some of the most common relationship issues are you do not have friends and feel lonely, you have enemies in the workspace and they always go against you, conflict with your boss or colleagues, and you fall in love with your boss or colleagues which makes you out of control sometimes.

5. Your Company is Not Performing

You get promoted but without salary raise. You are no longer receive the bonus that you used to have. You friends or bosses have been laid off due to company's cost saving or downsizing. No need to say much, I think is common that employees are de-motivated when their company is not performing as expected.

Which are the reasons cause you de-motivated at work? Are there listed here?


Related Posts:

• Meeting Your Boss's Emotional Needs
• Why You Should Manage Your Boss?
• Are You a Proactive Employee?