IWillTeachYouToBeRich - Thousands respond: "Is your job toxic?"

Reader,

The results from our "Is your job toxic?" quiz are in.

The executive summary:

• 20% of you consider your job seriously toxic!
• Another 40% are stuck in notably bad jobs
• Over half consider yourself underpaid

It's worth digging deeper. The results are surprising...

1. "Do you wake up Monday morning and dread going to work?" 62% said YES.

This is known as the “Sunday Scaries,” or that feeling in the pit of your stomach on Sunday evening as you think about how you’re going to have to spend the rest of your week. Day in, day out, over and over again...this adds up.

2. "Are you underpaid?"  58% said YES.

The first step is knowing you’re underpaid. This hits hard when people discover it. The next question is OK, so what do I do about it? In this economy??? Yes, you can get paid more, even in this economy. I’ll show you how, so stay tuned to these emails.

3. "Do you need more vacation?" 57% said YES.

Are you surprised? Americans love to take jobs that offer little vacation, then not even use that vacation!

4. "Have you had the same job title or salary for over 3 years?" Only 35% said YES.

Nothing wrong with staying at a job for the long term — I work with employees who’ve stayed at IWT for 5+ years — but it’s critical that you show growth in your role and responsibilities. I’ll tell you why I actively avoid job hoppers another time.

5. "Do you wish you could work remotely?" 53% said YES.

This one makes sense. After this year, a lot of us don’t want to trudge back to an office every day. Some do, though.

6. "Do you dislike your team, your boss, or the company you work for?" This one might be the most discouraging. 45% said YES.

Almost half of respondents dislike their boss, team, or company! And they have to spend 8+ hours a day with them, 5 days a week.

This is a huge red flag. If you spend all day with people you don’t like/respect, it has deep costs that accumulate over time. Get out.

7. "Have you received a raise but you’re still stressed about money?" Only 39% said YES.

This is a deeper issue than money. I talk to a lot of people who worry about money, who don’t feel they have “enough,” but when you dig in, they haven’t ever really defined what “enough” is. Hint: For most people, it’s not a number.

8. "Do you feel stuck?" 68% said YES.

Feeling stuck is a great sign that it’s time to make a change. However, most people who are “stuck” are not yet solution-oriented. This is why you find people in terrible relationships who love to talk about how terrible their relationship is. When you finally decide to make a change, it’s amazing how fast things can change.

9. "Do you feel like your opinion is ignored at work?" 47% said YES. Almost half of respondents.

And most important, how do all the YES and NO answers stack up?

Is your job toxic?

The key takeaway for me is:

Have higher standards for yourself!

What would you say if your friend told you they don’t like their coworkers, they haven’t gotten a promotion in years, and they aren’t listened to?

You’d tell them to GET OUT!!

So why do we settle for so much in our own lives?

You and I want to do meaningful work. We all want to get paid what we're worth. We want to work with people we respect. And we want to have a life outside of work.

And yet...

So many of us are STUCK.

When people complain to me about their job, instead of nodding and saying "ugh, work" like most people, I like to ask them what they could do about it.

(Try it. What do you notice happens?)

The answers can be haunting:

“I’ve tried everything, but I can’t get promoted.” 

“I want to switch careers but don’t know if I have the skills employers want and don’t want to go back to school. I already have so much student loan debt.”

“I don’t want to be a classic millennial with ‘grass is greener syndrome’ — thinking the next thing is going to fix everything. It’s like I don’t even trust myself. I keep asking, ‘Is this the right move?’”

“I am at a loss about where to go looking for a job…My main problem right now is that I do not know specifically what I want and am stuck at a major crossroad. I know my strengths and weaknesses, but my strengths could be applied to any industry, how do I decide whether to pick one over the other?”

“I have too many options that I am in analysis paralysis. Nothing seems to tick all the boxes. Oh, and I'm scared about all the stuff I don't know how to do.”

“I almost feel like having all three of these (job I love, income that allows me to live freely and have ample time to spend with my family) is impossible or completely unrealistic.” 

“There has to be more to life than giving your life to a job that you hate.”

In other words: "I don't know. I just feel stuck." 

When you're in a bad job, it's easy to feel smothered and not even know how to fix it.

The typical advice — polish your resume...do good work and you'll be rewarded eventually...just be thankful you have a job — doesn't help. (Why would it? The people who share this kind of advice have never landed an amazing job themselves.)

Soon, stressing and complaining about your job starts to feel like an extra job all on its own. Does it take you two days of vacation just to unwind from work so you can actually enjoy a day off? Then as Monday morning rolls around, that feeling of dread creeps back in...

This is how most people feel for 40+ years!

If you watch a bad movie or go on a bad date, you're out a few bucks and a couple of hours. Even a bad vacation only lasts a week. 

But a bad job? 

That's 40, 50, or more hours a week, every week, for DECADES. Not to mention the thousands of dollars a year you're probably missing out on — adding up to hundreds of thousands over the span of your career.

I want to help.

When I was in college, I got together with a small group of friends to learn how to “beat” the interviewing process. Weird, yes...but I never wanted to end up in a drab, gray cubicle.

We interviewed at the world's best companies — Google, McKinsey, Bain, etc. — and tested everything. Interview answers. Negotiation techniques. Even body language. Then we came back and shared our results with each other in our closed circle.

Once we cracked the code, we started getting job offer after job offer.

That was pretty cool on its own, but I learned something even more life-changing from it: 

Once you learn how to FIND and LAND
amazing jobs, you'll never be stuck
in a bad one again.

Did you get a new boss who's a nightmare? You can get a better one.

Want to make more money? You can negotiate a raise...or find a job that pays you more.

Decided you want to take your career in a different direction? Easily done.

Want to work remotely and free up more time for your family or travel? You can find a job that's perfect for you.

This skill is like an invisible thread running through the most enviable careers. And like any skill, it's learnable. I'll show you how.

OK, here's what I’m sending to you next…

• Thursday: Should you trade time for money? Rethinking what your career can be.

• Friday: STOP making these rookie mistakes. The 5 job search blunders that most people make over and over.

And what I want you to do TODAY: Reply to this email and tell me the #1 change you'd like to make in your career. What do you want from a Dream Job? Maybe that's getting a raise, or taking on more responsibility. Maybe it's getting more flexible hours or remote work. Maybe it's changing industries completely. You tell me what's most important to you.

I read every reply.

Talk to you tomorrow,

P.S. I talk more about what it means to have a toxic job on my IG channel. You can check it out here.

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