Are you too cool for your job?

You are no longer motivated to get into your workplace. You were excited by the tremendous growth opportunities when you first joined your company, but any semblance of this has since fizzled out. You are no longer learning new things, challenges have stopped coming in, and you find your job mundane, if not outright boring.

You are too cool for your job if you encounter these telltale signs.

You feel demotivated and drained

You cannot wait to get out of your workplace. Instead of feeling proud of your achievements today and excited about new challenges tomorrow, you are thinking, “Why is time passing so slowly and when can I get home?”

When you are finally at home, you feel that you are mentally, emotionally or physically drained.

You have to keep quiet or face criticism

Each time you try to speak up about a new idea, make a comment or report your progress, your peers or supervisors are quick to criticize and challenge you. If you have to fight to get a change in an operational procedure or negotiate for months for others to buy into your idea, you may be facing a brick wall at work.

You then decide to lay low, but become demoralized under these circumstances.

You are given derogatory labels

You have been labelled “a waste of space”, “troublemaker” or “that person with all sorts of ideas”. If you look back over the past year and cannot think of any fun and exciting assignments that you have completed at work, your passion for your job may be dying down. With all the hurtful names given to you, you feel insulted and unjustified. This is the strongest sign that you are too cool for your job.

“You have been labelled a waste of space.”

With all the indications that you have reached a new level of coolness beyond what your company can handle, it may be time for you to step up to a greater challenge elsewhere.

Photo credit: Sander Smeekes

But are you ready for the next challenge?

While assessing your suitability to move on to another job or to start out on your own, you need to consider your skills, experiences, educational credentials, and even your mental preparedness. Being mentally prepared for a greater challenge is an important determinant of the level of success you can achieve for your new venture. You will also need to bring value to your new company or to the startup you create, so start planning for it with the following pointers.