What to Do When You Feel like You Don’t Fit In at Work

Coming to the conclusion that you’re not a good fit at your current company can be a tough pill to swallow.

Once you admit there is a problem, the next step is to do something about it. Start by trying to get to the root cause of the issue. Then, talk to people in the company to get as much information as possible. And finally, decide if you’re going to stick it out … or move on.

Finding the Root Cause

The collective values, priorities and beliefs of a company make up its culture. To be fair, it’s pretty difficult to get a feeling of a company culture in the hiring process, and you shouldn’t blame yourself for not spotting a mismatch for starting your current job.

Now that you have identified a problem, your first move should be to step back and determine why you aren’t feeling so great about your employer. Try to see how the culture is different from the one you were anticipating. Taking this initial step will allow you to figure out why you’re feeling uneasy.

Talk to People

If you don’t think you’ve made an honest effort to connect to people at the company, you need to reach out and make social connections.

This effort will allow you to feel a bit more connected to others in your workplace. Also, developing these personal bonds will raise your comfort level, which helps when you feel the need to speak up about work-related issues.

If trying to get more socially comfortable at your workplace doesn’t help, or that ship has sailed, talk to your boss about your concerns. Begin the discussion by asking your supervisor for feedback on your recent performance. If your boss doesn’t pick up on your uncertainty, go ahead and bring up the issues you’re battling, talk about your frustrations, why you’re feeling the way you are and any suggestions on how things could get better.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

After reaching out to co-workers and talking with your boss, take a couple weeks to consider what you have learned in those interaction and internalize any useful lessons. If things take a turn for the better, then keep going down that road. If things don’t improve or get worse – it might be time to start looking at new jobs.

A bad cultural fit is a bad situation. You can’t expect everyone else in the company to change for you and trying to tough it out can be hard on you mentally.

Fortunately, there are all kinds of company cultures out there and finding one that allows you to thrive isn’t very hard at all.

Culture Fit is Important to Career Concepts

At Career Concepts, we strive to connect job seekers to best-fit job opportunities and we often get people out of bad-fit situations. Please contact us today to find out how we can put you into a culture where you can thrive.