Staying motivated when you feel underappreciated

Having been new in a workplace for a few weeks, Allen Nakalanzi constantly felt under immense pressure  and scrutiny. To complicate matters more, the only time she got feedback from her colleagues was when she was doing things wrong.

She was criticised for the way she talked to clients and since her job was basically to talk to clients, she started stammering. The more she tried to gain their approval the worse she sounded and this eventually affected her performance.  

We have all felt unfairly criticised by our supervisors but what happens when you constantly feel underappreciated and yet have to keep going? How does one stay motivated in such a workplace?

As a human resource practitioner, Hilda Leah Asiimwe notes that feeling genuinely appreciated lifts people up and yet at the same time, there is nothing that makes people feel worse like people’s efforts being unrecognised in their workplace.
 
 “We all have a human need to be appreciated for our efforts.  If not acknowledged or appreciated,  this often makes one feel as though they do not belong. One might also start to worry justifiably about their potential professional advancement and before you know it, self-doubt starts to creep in, and one begins to think, ‘if no one notices what I am doing, how am I going to get ahead?” Asiimwe shares.

She says that one of the ways to remain motivated when one feels unappreciated is to move away from the need for external validation, as real fulfillment comes from within.

Asiimwe adds that one needs to make an effort to pat themselves on the back regularly. She recommends that one should try to carve out time at the end of each week towards reflection on what went well and what did not go as well. This, she says is a useful exercise for remembering both what you are good at and why you do what you do.

“However, you need to be careful not to dwell on everything you did wrong. One may need to develop the capacity to set their own goals and find joy in accomplishing them. In fact, you can foster self-appreciation and in the end remain motivated even when you feel underappreciated,” she says.

Another way to motivate oneself is to get a good workout before work. Asiimwe notes that doing some physical activity will help you feel better about who you are which only reinforces mental fortitude.

“One thing I know is that the workplaces have been made shrewd and rude places,” Josephine Uwimana, human rights activist, notes. What I have mastered as a person when I feel underappreciated, is to do the following;
•Pray about it
•Affirm myself
•Speak to someone who believes in me
•Perform rituals that push me daily
•Read books that motivate me. You can read healing books or messages and always do something that makes you happy because the worst thing that can happen to you is depression at the workplace.
•Talk to people that motivate me, my family is really supportive especially when it comes to workplaces that drain energy from someone.

•Set boundaries; avoid sharing personal things at the work place. People at work are meant to be your colleagues and nothing more because when anything happens, they might use it against you and link it to your work performance, which always gets back to you. Always remember that the best lifestyle is a lifestyle that is known to you.

•Talk to your mentors; these should be people who care and listen to you.
In his book, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, author John Maxwell shares that knowing what one wants to do is one of the most important things one can ever do. Perhaps feeling underappreciated in a workplace is a result of uncertainty in who you are and what sets you apart from the rest of your colleagues.

One can embrace the law of awareness as portrayed in the book, ‘you must know yourself to grow yourself. To grow you must know yourself, strengths and weaknesses, interests and opportunities’ as opposed to waiting for validation from someone else which may never come.