You Are Not So Smart

296 - Job Therapy - Tessa West

Sep 16, 2024

Dr. Tessa West, a psychologist from NYU, dives into the emotional intricacies of job satisfaction and how they mirror romantic relationships. She discusses how narratives we create about job dissatisfaction often mislead our career decisions, leading us to stay too long or make hasty choices. Tessa introduces 'job therapy' as a means to reassess our feelings toward work. She also highlights the modern challenges of multiple roles and communication gaps, urging listeners to reflect on their career identities and strategies for improvement.

55:09

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Tessa West

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Quick takeaways

Job dissatisfaction often mirrors romantic relationship struggles, revealing that our emotional experiences can be misleading rationalizations.

The feeling of ambivalence between attachment and dissatisfaction can lead to indecision about staying or leaving a job.

Recent expressions of workplace unhappiness reflect deeper identity crises, indicating a shift towards anthropomorphizing careers similar to romantic failures.

Deep dives

Assessing Job Satisfaction

Many people experience feelings of dissatisfaction with their jobs, often questioning their happiness and considering career changes. These sentiments can stem from numerous subtle cues leading to a broader sense of unhappiness that is hard to articulate. Psychologists suggest that our narratives about job dissatisfaction can be misleading, resembling the feelings one might have in troubled romantic relationships. Instead of looking for rational explanations, it’s important to recognize the emotional complexity involved in职场relationships.

Work Dissatisfaction Mirrors Relationship Evaluation

00:49

Navigating Ambivalence in Career Satisfaction

04:08

Assess Your Star Potential

00:26

Intro

5min

Emotional Dynamics of Job Dissatisfaction

7min

Navigating Workplace Burnout

7min

Enhancing Management and Communication

8min

Navigating Job Relationships and Personal Identity

29min

Understanding the Paradox of Daily Stressors

3min

Exploring Human Quirks and Workplace Dynamics

3min

Are you unhappy at your job? Are you starting to consider a change of career because of how your current work makes you feel? Do you know why?

According to our guest in this episode, Dr. Tessa West, a psychologist at NYU, if you are currently contemplating whether you want to do the work that you do everyday you should know that although this feeling is common, psychologists who study this sort of thing have discovered that our narratives for why we feel this way are often just rationalizations and justifications.

In fact, it turns out that the way we psychologically evaluate the jobs we think we might not want to do anymore is nearly identical to how we evaluate romantic relationships we feel like we might no longer want to be a part of. The feelings are usually undeniable, but our explanations for why we feel the way we feel can be wildly inaccurate, and because of that, our resulting behavior can be, let’s say, sub-optimal. We sometimes stay far longer than we should or make knee-jerk decisions we later regret or commit to terrible mistakes that could have been avoided.

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