Raise your hand if you are unsatisfied at your job.

Even if you don’t see multiple hands across the sea of cubicles in your office, you can safely assume that you are not alone.

I’ve been doing some research on this here interweb and I’m seeing a bit of a discrepancy here. Perhaps the respondents of one of these surveys were bribed with caramel filled chocolate bunnies, or the respondents of the other, threatened with Peeps. (Don’t laugh. Those little marshmallow fowl can be rather menacing.)

The Conference Board Job Satisfaction survey from 2015, found that only 48.3% of employees were satisfied at work. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 86% of US employees are satisfied.

My brow is furrowed, I’m chewing on the pencil eraser, and my head is tilted (like when my dog can’t figure out where a toy has disappeared to.) If you round up, carry the 1, divide the big number by 7 and multiply by 2, that’s still… a ridiculously large difference!

Seriously, almost 40%.

Regardless of what the surveys returned, (and I am going to keep trying to figure that one out), the question is why an employee (perhaps you) might be unsatisfied at their current job.

When asked about employee engagement, and what makes a worker feel connected and committed to their work, employees said:

– Contribution of work to business goals

– Relationships with coworkers

– Opportunities to use skills and abilities

– Meaningfulness of the job

This seems on point. When I think back to the jobs in which I wasn’t completely satisfied, I felt like I wasn’t an important piece of the cog, like I wasn’t being utilized for my skills, and also like the company just existed to make money.

Have you ever heard that saying , “Friends are the family you get to choose yourself”? Yes, you do get to choose your jobs, but some people feel as if they are trapped (been there) either because of money, family obligations, or they just don’t think they can do any better. It would be lovely to stand up, throw down your headset, your apron, or your laptop (be careful, those shatter like a mother!), give your boss the finger and head for the parking lot, your potted fern in hand… but that’s probably not feasible.

So what is feasible? Who are these “friends” you get to choose?

Volunteering. Yep. We are back to that. When you are unsatisfied with your work, find something to do on the side that fuels your fire. When your skills aren’t being fully utilized, lend them to a non-profit that could use your genius. When you feel like all you do is make widgets, support a cause that’s changing the world.

Think it’s just a waste of time? According to Linked In, 1 in 5 managers hired employees based off of their volunteer experience. Career change anyone? What’s the best way to show someone you can do a new job? Do it. And help out some worthy organization in the mean time.