TLDR: Leaving a job that has turned dreadful can be an overwhelming experience. This guide draws on Buddhist wisdom (Dhamma) to help you navigate your notice period with greater clarity and peace. Through compassion, mindfulness, and gratitude, discover how to transform this challenging transition into an opportunity for spiritual growth.
Dear Reader,
Do you dread work? You are not alone. Perhaps you have explored solutions within the workplace to ease this dread to no avail. You may have decided to resign but continue to feel trapped and yearn to be free from the workplace. Navigating your notice period with the Dhamma as your heart’s guiding compass can transform this experience into an opportunity for spiritual growth. True freedom is not about leaving a place but freeing the heart.
“Any place you don’t want to be, no matter how comfortable, is a prison for you.”
– Ajahn Brahm
Cultivating Inner Harmony
Harmony in our outer lives begins within. During stressful times like the notice period, prioritize nurturing your inner world by cultivating self-compassion, patience, and mindfulness. This brings about the balance and stability needed to face the outer world.
Self-Compassion
Accept and validate your feelings
It is normal to feel overwhelmed, unmotivated, sad, anxious, guilty, or relieved leading up to one’s last day. Work dread can impact your productivity, leaving you feeling inadequate or as though you have fallen short. If your work performance was strong in the past, the drastic change can feel like a painful decline, taking a toll on your morale. Acknowledge these feelings compassionately, for they are a natural part of the transition. Treat yourself as you would a dear friend, with kindness, empathy, and understanding.
Look at the larger picture
Know that these experiences are common during career transitions. Your worth and abilities extend far beyond this ending. Focus instead on the entirety of your time here, especially your contributions and successes.
Act with Right Intention
If you have tried forcing yourself to feel motivated, you would have found that it often leads to unnecessary stress and disappointment. Instead of trying to change your feelings, shift your focus to acting with Right Intention – generosity, loving-kindness, and compassion. By intentionally cultivating these wholesome mental states, your mind will gradually lift from the heaviness of dread, allowing positivity to emerge naturally.
Suggestions:
- Ajahn Brahm’s guided loving-kindness meditation
- Imee Ooi’s The Chant of Metta (loving-kindness)
- Self-compassion practices
Patience
“Suffering is asking from the world what it cannot give you.”
– Ajahn Brahm
Accept your work situation as is. Whether it involves company restructuring, management changes, difficult bosses, or colleagues leaving, these challenges reflect the changing and unsatisfactory nature of the world. Whenever we ask the world to be something it cannot be, we suffer. Whenever we suffer, pause and ask, “What am I resisting right now?” By letting go of this resistance and embracing reality as it unfolds, our resilience to face the inevitable ups and downs of life grows.
Mindfulness
Anchor yourself to the present
When work is overwhelming, mindfulness is like an anchor in a stormy sea—keeping you steady amidst chaos. Ground yourself in the present by being mindful of your breathing, walking, and five senses. For example, when using the computer, notice how it feels to touch the mouse, type on the keyboard, and hear the smallest sounds around you.
Severe work dread can manifest as psychosomatic symptoms like a pounding heart or brain fog. To ease these sensations, calm your nervous system regularly by taking deep breaths, relaxing your muscles, and enjoying a nice cup of tea. These practices can bring calm to your mind.
Observe your thoughts
Observe your thoughts as they arise. Do they lead to peace or stress? If a thought brings stress, gently release it, letting it pass like clouds drifting across the sky. At the same time, nurture peaceful and supportive thoughts. For example, if the thought “many more weeks to go” daunts you, remind yourself to ”Take it one day, one task, and one breath at a time.”
“Doing is easy, thinking about it is the hard part.”
– Ajahn Brahm
From Inner to Outer Harmony
By cultivating caring attitudes towards others, we are in fact nurturing our own minds. Generosity, gratitude, and forgiveness not only inspire actions that bring happiness to others, but you will experience them as joyful states.
Generosity
Approach work as an act of service
Approach work as your last gift to your colleagues. This gives work a new purpose and makes them meaningful, especially if they have lost meaning previously. Wherever appropriate, find ways to be of service, such as helping a struggling colleague with a small task, or even small gestures like wiping down spilled coffee in the pantry. It can be joyful serving in this way, recollecting the benefits others would receive from your efforts.
Before giving, set a kind and joyful intention for your act of service.
- May whoever reads my email be well, happy, and peaceful.
- May the customers benefit from this work that I have done.
- May my smooth handover help my boss and colleagues to be at ease.
After giving, rejoice in the goodness within you!
Gratitude and Forgiveness
Respect and humility,
contentment and gratitude,
and timely listening to the teaching:
this is the highest blessing.
Bring closure by parting ways with gratitude, humility, and forgiveness. This not only warms everyone’s hearts but also frees our own from the burden of ego, bringing it to peace. No wonder the Buddha taught these qualities to be one of the highest blessings!
Express gratitude
Take time to reflect on how people have supported you professionally and personally. For example, pen a farewell email to thank your past and present managers for their guidance or write personal notes to your colleagues accompanied by their favourite snacks.
Seek forgiveness
Seeking forgiveness is an expression of respect and humility that can be liberating. Even a simple, sincere line in your farewell email such as “I seek your forgiveness for any mistakes I have made,” can mend bridges and soften the ego. Let go of any lingering resentment over mistakes to move forward peacefully.
Touching Joy Amidst Suffering
We do not have to wait for all suffering to disappear before we can touch joy. By nurturing wholesome mental states such as compassion, patience, generosity, gratitude, and forgiveness, we invite moments of calm and peace, even amidst adversity at work. Every small act—whether it is mindful breathing or offering kindness—plants a seed of joy in our hearts. If joy has not yet sprouted, keep planting its seeds anyway. Have faith that when conditions are ripe, these seeds will sprout into peace and happiness.
All journeys take time, and the path may not always be easy. With the Dhamma as our heart’s compass, we can navigate even life’s stormiest seas and find refuge on the safe island within—a place where true freedom awaits.
“Smile, Breathe, and Go Slowly”
– Thich Nhah Hanh
Wise Steps
- Self-compassion: Embrace your feelings with kindness
- Mindfulness: Anchor yourself in the present with mindful breathing, walking, and engaging your five senses
- Generosity: Approach your work as an act of service
- Gratitude: Express genuine appreciation for the support received
- Forgiveness: Seek forgiveness for past mistakes and free yourself from lingering burdens
