It is a current phenomenon that people experience a changing interest in their work. Especially at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, people started spending a lot more time at home. This gives people more freedom to think about the next year or five years of their lives. In a hectic office, many people didn’t have the space and time to think. But this added space to think about the future made people start to question what they are actually interested in.
In addition, many jobs were stripped down to their most essential components during the pandemic. Workers realized that it was not the work itself they may have enjoyed before but everything around it. Social connections in the workplace were gone. For many people it wasn’t actually the job they were doing that they liked, but the social culture, the people they had around them all day long.
Others lost interest because their job became unusually tough during the pandemic. People react to work overload or insufficient support by their company with a loss of interest in their job. This happens mostly in fields where people enter because of an interest in the work. Nursing and teaching for example, are jobs that have seen a great loss of formerly passionate people.
The disruption of the pandemic has opened a door for change for many workers. However, losing interest in a job is a normal reaction to the pandemic and it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone needs to quit or change careers. It may be possible to simply go back to a positive or at least neutral relationship with the job. It can help for example, to take note of the things you like most about your work. Even if you haven’t experienced them for a while. Reminding yourself of what captured your interest in the first place can motivate you or get you some clarity about what you liked and what you are missing now.
There is quite some grey area between a job worth quitting and a job with which you can fall in love with. A lot of people that have become disinterested in their jobs are going to remain that way and keep working anyway. That is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of people may realize that their job is just something they do to fund all the things they want to do. Some people don’t want to pursue their passion at work. Others don’t have the opportunity. But there are plenty of things to be passionate about outside of work.
You just have to be honest with yourself and ask yourself: What needs is your job meant to fulfill? Just financial needs? Or the need for connection or your values? The Covid pandemic certainly made people reflect upon this.
