For eight months, the 33-year-old marketing manager felt something was off. Not too depressed, not burned out to make him quit work; Just a constant emotional exhaustion. He described it on Reddit’s r/work as feeling “flat,” going through the motions at work and having no energy or interest to do anything at home.
At first, he thought it might be depression. His boyfriend suggested therapy, and after six sessions, he got an answer he didn’t expect.
“My therapist told me I’m not depressed,” he said. “I just hate my job and now I don’t know what to do with this information.”
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The difference was significant. He did not struggle in all areas of life. The weekend felt good. Holidays feel normal. He stayed busy with friends and hobbies and slept well. The problem appeared almost exclusively during work.
“Your brain is not broken,” his therapist told him. “Your situation is wrong.”
This man makes about $94,000 working in marketing for an insurance company and has nearly a decade of experience in the field. But something has changed in the last two years. Work that once felt engaging now feels meaningless. “Everything I do feels like I’m just going through the motions,” he said.
The real issue now is what part of the job caused it. Was it the company? Industry? Marketing yourself? Or simply doing the same thing for a long time?
He worried that leaving the answers unanswered would lead to similar results elsewhere and “doing the same thing in another building.”
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What people who have been there say
The answers showed that his situation was more common than he thought.
Many said that the therapist had already done the hardest part by minimizing the issue. One commenter wrote: “Many people spend years thinking they are depressed when that’s actually the case.”
Others pointed to burnout as a possible factor. The dull, empty feeling he described, where nothing seems to matter at work, is a common symptom, especially in roles that are repetitive or lack growth.
Instead of rushing to quit, many people recommend breaking the job down into smaller pieces to find the root of the problem.
One person said they tracked their workdays for two weeks, writing down what they did, who they worked with, and how they felt. After that, they began to consider samples that they had not taken before.
“Suddenly I saw all kinds of patterns,” they wrote. “These patterns made it clear that I could stay where I was – the people and the industry were OK but I was tired. I missed learning and growing.”
This insight helped them make more deliberate career moves later, rather than a compulsive reaction.
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The difference between a malfunctioning system and a broken system
A recurring theme was that the issue was often not the work itself, but the specific circumstances surrounding it.
Many people said that the problem usually comes down to things like feeling like your work has no purpose, dealing with office politics, doing the same things over and over again, and spending too much time on meetings and reports that don’t feel important.
“Most of my stress and depression comes from my job,” said one. “Office politics is no joke. It feels like high school all over again. The only solution is to find a good work environment, which is hard these days.”
“Finding a new job changed my life,” added Bill. “It feels like a weight has been lifted off me.”
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This article describes a 33-year-old who thought they were depressed after feeling ‘flat’ for 8 months and went to a therapist. Turns Out They Just Hate Their Jobs originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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