My Thoughts - Underemployed...The Struggle is Real

If you are not happy or excited about going to work, you might be underemployed. I have been in this place in life more times than I would like to admit. I did not even realize this was a thing until now. Some folks may confuse being underemployed with being underpaid. Yes, you may believe YOU deserve more pay for how awesome you are, but the pay is meant to be commensurate with the position. I am going to share my thoughts and feelings about being underemployed. This is not science, this is just me sharing. 

I really enjoy the movie American Beauty. If you have seen it, you may remember when the father quits his job and takes a job at a burger joint. He purposefully underemployed himself. In the end, we realize how extremely unhappy he was with life. Most people do not under employ themselves on purpose because no one wants to be unhappy on purpose. I would like to share about my experience on the subject. 

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I have found myself unhappy during my career quite often. Sometimes it was the working conditions, but on occasion I was just bored and felt underappreciated or not respected. Now, I realize this often came from being underemployed. The first time someone discovered this was six years into my military career. My supervisor at the time did not explain any of this to me, I just look back and see what he did. He found me challenges. He saw my strengths and used them. He supported me and appreciated my efforts. In the military, you can do this a little easier than in the civilian work force. Returning to the work force after being unemployed for 7 years, I have found myself struggling as I worked my way “up” because I am just not where I need to be. Here are some of the struggles I have had.

The first issue I have found with being underemployed is the significant amount of free time I have. How can this be an issue, you may wonder? When you are underemployed, you have these skills that make your work so much easier and you get things done faster. What can you do with this free time? You can take on additional work. You can help your peers. You can do some self-care. If you take on additional work, you will eventually feel taken advantage of because you are doing 90% of the work load. Sure, you are capable, but your abilities begin to feel like a punishment. If you help your peers consistently, you can stifle their growth. Then there is the self-care aspect. Sure, you could read a book, FB scroll, or even go for a walk, but for some reason in this society people are gaged by the time they put into things, not the end result…silly, right? People will see you sitting around “doing nothing” and always have something to say about it.

The second difficulty I have discovered dives deeper into the team player concept. Most employers want team players. The question is, where is the line? I get asked for my assistance a lot due to my skill set and free time. Like I mentioned before, helping others can cause them harm sometimes. You can prevent someone from growing through an issue or process. You also teach people to rely too heavily on your assistance or even demand it. In addition, this can create animosity among peers or even those above your pay-grade. Supervisors may begin to see your efforts and start to give you more tasks. People may begin to get upset about this because it is no longer THEIR choice to get you involved. Those tasks may be in THEIR territory. Now the group dynamics are all messed up. Not only are you seen as a special because you have free time, but now you are also the project/job thief. I have been accused of trying to make others look bad just by trying to be a team player. In addition, if you are helping others on the DL (down low), now you get to watch them take credit for your work or even worse they change everything after all your hard work and blame you if it is not well liked. Or your supervisor finds out and takes offense to you not staying in your lane. 

The last thing I will mention is something I have been working hard on. I have a difficult time staying in my lane. Each position has a statement of work and most have areas of responsibility. It is your job to stay within those limits unless otherwise instructed by your supervisor (even then, it could be an issue). This is really hard when you are bored and have free time. I must consistently remind myself that it is not my job to improve processes or serve customers that are not in my area of responsibility. It is in my nature to fix things and I am educated in process improvement. I also pride myself on customer service. So, when I see things that need to be improved or customers that are not having their needs met, I want to jump in. What’s preventing me? I have free time. I am bored. Why not? This ties right in with everything else. Territory matters to people. No one wants to be one upped. You can shift the group dynamics significantly if you do not stay in your lane. 

Being underemployed is not an ideal situation. Sometimes it just is what it is. You may be seen as disloyal as you work your way up to a position with growth potential. However, I think it is best for you and your employer if you do not remain in a position you have out grown. I am learning how to be a better underemployed employee as I seek opportunities for growth. I am one of the lucky ones that has a supervisor that allows me to seek growth opportunities outside my position. This has helped and honestly his insistence on me doing growth opportunities is what helped me see why I was so unhappy at work. My job satisfaction has increased, but I am definitely looking forward to my next challenging position sometime in the future.