Job Therapy
Finding Work That Works for You
Book Edition Details
Summary
Is your work life a labyrinth of dissatisfaction and unfulfilled ambitions? In "Job Therapy," Dr. Tessa West offers a revelatory roadmap to unearthing the root of career unhappiness. Ditch the blame game—it's not just bad bosses or mundane tasks at play. Through the lens of psychological insight, Dr. West unveils the hidden unmet needs that truly drive workplace discontent. Drawing on research from over a thousand career transitions, she identifies five archetypes of job dissatisfaction, from the "underappreciated star" to the "identity crisis" sufferer. Armed with this knowledge, readers can embark on a transformative journey to redefine their professional paths, using Dr. West's innovative working week audit and insider tips from top recruiters. Discover how to pivot towards a role that doesn't just pay the bills, but nourishes your soul and propels you into lasting happiness.
Introduction
Sarah sat in her corner office, staring at the promotion letter that should have brought joy but instead filled her with dread. After fifteen years climbing the corporate ladder, she had everything she thought she wanted: prestige, salary, recognition. Yet every morning, she felt like she was putting on a costume for a role she no longer recognized as her own. The work that once energized her now felt mechanical, and she found herself wondering how she had drifted so far from the person she used to be. Sarah's story echoes countless others navigating the complex emotional landscape of modern careers. We often approach career dissatisfaction as a practical problem—better salary, new company, different role—but the real issues run much deeper. They're psychological, relational, and profoundly personal. Just as we might seek therapy to understand why our relationships aren't working, we need the same thoughtful approach to understand our relationship with our work. This book introduces a revolutionary framework for career exploration that goes beyond traditional job-hunting advice. Instead of focusing solely on what you want to do, it helps you understand why you're unhappy, how you've changed, and what you truly need to flourish. Through careful self-assessment, strategic networking, and honest conversation, you'll discover not just a new job, but a renewed sense of purpose and professional identity that aligns with who you've become.
The Identity Crisis: When Your Career No Longer Defines You
Timothy, a technology expert with eight years at the same company, defended his profession with passion when asked about his work. Technology, he insisted, was the foundation of modern society, and he took pride in being the go-to problem solver since high school. Yet beneath his confident exterior lay a troubling ambivalence. The office had become a place of low-level malaise where colleagues seemed disengaged and mistakes mounted as people either left or were laid off. When Timothy moved to a different branch hoping for better energy, he found the same listless atmosphere. During their conversation, Timothy casually mentioned the possibility of moving states and working in higher education, though he quickly dismissed it as something for "when I'm much older." He oscillated between dreaming of different careers and planning his next promotion, caught between his deep identification with technology work and his growing disenchantment with the reality of practicing it. His identity was fractured—still loving the craft but questioning whether the environment would ever support the work he cared about. Susan, a tenured professor who transitioned to UX research, experienced a similar journey but traveled further along the path. The pandemic transformed her job beyond recognition, with layoffs and top-down changes eliminating the courses she loved teaching. Despite being a high performer, she began doubting her value and losing the confidence that had sustained her throughout her career. The recognition that once energized her no longer provided the same satisfaction. The Crisis of Identity represents the most profound career transition because it questions not just what you do, but who you are. Unlike other forms of job dissatisfaction, this crisis strikes at people who have built their sense of self around their professional role. The solution isn't simply finding a new position—it requires carefully dismantling an old identity while consciously constructing a new one, often requiring patience with the messy emotions and uncertainty that accompany such fundamental change.
The Drifted Apart: Reconnecting with Work That Changed
Mia once loved her daily commute and the energy of working alongside engaged colleagues. But post-pandemic, everything felt different. The company had shifted to "hoteling"—meeting in different conference rooms rather than having a consistent office space—and her coworkers seemed to move through their days like disengaged zombies. The changes weren't dramatic or sudden; they accumulated gradually until Mia realized she was living in a world that had once been vibrant but was now painted in muted tones. When pressed to identify what exactly had changed, Mia struggled to pinpoint specific causes. There had been budget cuts that eliminated office comforts, layoffs that reduced the team, and restructuring that combined her role with responsibilities she wasn't trained for. But connecting these organizational changes to her daily experience of disconnection proved challenging. Like many who have drifted apart from their work, Mia could list what was different but couldn't trace the invisible threads linking big structural changes to the small daily frustrations that made her job feel unrecognizable. The Drifted Apart face a unique challenge: they remember what loving their work felt like, but they can't easily identify what needs to change to recapture that feeling. Unlike those seeking entirely new careers, they're trying to repair a relationship that once worked well. Their task involves detective work—understanding how workplace changes connect to personal changes, and how both have conspired to create distance from work that once brought satisfaction. Recovery requires more than simply identifying what's wrong. It demands understanding the complex interplay between organizational transformation and personal evolution. Sometimes the job has changed beyond recognition; sometimes the person has grown in directions that no longer align with their role; often, it's both. The path forward involves honest assessment of what can be rebuilt versus what needs to be left behind, and the wisdom to know which battles are worth fighting in the quest to reconnect with meaningful work.
The Stretched Too Thin: Managing Overwhelm and Multiple Roles
Jake stood in the corner at his own promotion party, nursing a glass of scotch and feeling anything but celebratory. The company president had announced his elevation to Director, complete with a substantial raise, fancy title, and assistant to help with the transition. Most people would consider Jake fortunate—in an era of layoffs and inflation, he was being handed increased responsibility, status, and compensation. Yet Jake felt trapped rather than honored by his new position. The source of Jake's anxiety wasn't the work itself but the threat to his carefully constructed routine. Every morning from eight to ten, Jake performed what he called "deep work"—two hours of uninterrupted, high-quality thinking that allowed him to accomplish more than most people managed in an entire day. No emails, calls, or casual conversations were permitted during this sacred time. The rest of his day could be chaotic and interrupt-driven, but those two hours of protected time allowed him to maintain his identity and excellence. Within a month of his promotion, Jake's morning routine had crumbled. First, he began breaking his own rules, checking notes for upcoming meetings during his protected time. Then, when his team saw him active on Slack during those hours, they began reaching out constantly. His two-hour window shrunk to one hour, then disappeared entirely. Attempts to compensate by working evenings led to insomnia, and eventually Jake took leave, planning to seek an individual contributor role with less money but greater control over his time. Jake's story illustrates how being stretched too thin isn't simply about having too much work—it's about losing control over the work that defines you. When the demands of multiple roles or constant interruptions erode the activities that give work meaning, people don't just become less productive; they begin to lose their professional identity. The solution requires both practical strategies for managing competing demands and the wisdom to protect the core work that sustains engagement and excellence.
The Undervalued Star: Getting Recognition You Deserve
Sebastian had spent two years as a senior manager, performing well and building a strong team that consistently delivered results. When the director position opened, he felt confident about his qualifications and his place in line for the promotion. He had the accomplishments, the experience, and what seemed like the logical progression from his current role. Yet three times he found himself passed over—first for Mark, who "knew the right people," then for two external hires who held similar titles at other organizations. What Sebastian didn't realize was that his path to his current role had been unconventional. When the previous senior manager left suddenly due to long COVID, the company needed a quick replacement and promoted the most motivated person available rather than conducting a thorough search. This "battlefield promotion" gave Sebastian valuable experience but caused him to miss a crucial middle step: serving as a first-line manager, where people typically learned essential skills like using an "enterprise mindset" and managing the transition from peer to supervisor. The people making promotion decisions valued traditional career progression and saw Sebastian's missed step as a significant gap, regardless of his current performance. They had taken a deliberate path through first-line management roles and expected others to do the same. Sebastian only discovered this unwritten rule through extensive networking with people outside his organization, learning that his perceived strength—quickly stepping up in an emergency—was actually seen as a weakness by promotion decision-makers who valued systematic development. Sebastian's experience reveals how being undervalued often stems from invisible systems and unstated expectations rather than performance deficiencies. Sometimes the rules aren't written down; sometimes the people who hired you aren't the same ones making promotion decisions; sometimes the skills that got you here aren't the ones that will get you there. Recognition requires not just excellent work, but understanding the hidden architecture of advancement within your organization and industry.
Summary
Career dissatisfaction rarely stems from simple mismatches between skills and roles. Instead, it emerges from complex psychological relationships with work that evolve over time, often in ways we don't immediately recognize. Whether questioning your fundamental career identity, feeling disconnected from work that has changed around you, struggling with overwhelming demands, or seeking recognition for your contributions, the path forward begins with honest self-assessment and strategic relationship-building. The most profound insight from these stories is that career transitions mirror personal relationships in their complexity, emotional intensity, and need for thoughtful navigation. Just as we might seek therapy to understand why a marriage isn't working, career challenges require similar psychological insight and careful attention to both internal changes and external circumstances. The solution isn't simply finding a new job—it's understanding what you need to flourish and creating conditions where that flourishing becomes possible. True career satisfaction comes not from perfecting your resume or networking more aggressively, but from aligning your work with who you've become and who you're becoming. This requires courage to examine difficult emotions, wisdom to see patterns in your professional relationships, and patience with the uncertain process of growth. When you approach career change as an opportunity for deeper self-understanding rather than merely a practical problem to solve, you open possibilities for work that doesn't just pay the bills but genuinely feeds your soul.
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By Tessa West
