19/11/2025
Is this Hurting You?
Poor Person to Job/Person to Organisation Fit is Injurious, and it is Serious.
My everyday work is based around the effects of this subject, so I will continue to bang the drum. It’s too important not to.
My own experience told me that I waited too long to make a change, and I paid dearly for it. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t “just me”, so I have spent a significant chunk of my time reading more about what other people’s experiences have been, as well as diving into studies around the subject of being in a job which doesn’t match your vibe.
I found out such a lot, and I want to help make sure this doesn’t happen to you. So, I’ve set out five more signs that this could be affecting you and I really hope you spot it before it takes a serious hold. You see, most people don’t realise they’re incompatible with their career until the signs are everywhere. These signs aren’t particularly dramatic, either. At least, they aren’t at first.
The quiet erosion from the drip, drip, drip of misalignment begins to wear you down in a way which no single “bad day” ever could.
If any of what you are about to read here rings even the faintest of bells with you, it isn’t because you are weak, lazy, or unfocused. It’s because your work and your wiring have stopped speaking the same language.
Please, PLEASE, read on…
Chronic Stress & Burnout
When the job drains more than it gives.
Burnout rarely explodes into your life. It brews, percolates.
Data from Gallup shows that three out of four people hit burnout at least more than once in their working lives, and misalignment with their work is one of the big culprits. When a job demands a version of you that isn’t sustainable, or maybe it isn’t really you at all, EVERYTHING becomes heavier.
You start waking up tired. You put more energy in and get less feeling back. You dread the bit of the day when work “switches on,” even if you’ve had a decent night’s sleep.
You would be forgiven for internalising this as personal failure, but it simply isn’t that at all. It’s usually just incompatibility disguised as pressure.
Loss of Motivation & Creativity
When the spark goes out, but the workload remains.
It’s clear from the studies that there’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from doing work that doesn’t light you up. LinkedIn’s research shows that people in the wrong roles are three times more likely to disengage, and it doesn’t happen with fireworks. It happens with sighs and steady and slow withdrawal. Withdrawal from oneself, and from those around you.
You procrastinate. You coast. You stare at the same paragraph, presentation, email or spreadsheet, waiting for your brain to kick into gear. It doesn’t.
The truth is simple and also a little painful: creativity only survives where meaningful existence lives.
And when the work stops mattering, the mind quietly checks out long before the body follows, and you probably don’t notice either at first.
Your Health Starts Whispering (and Then Shouting)
Your body notices before you do.
The body has a funny way of telling the truth before we’re ready to hear it.
The APA has been saying it for years and there are tons of studies and articles backing this up: chronic job dissatisfaction increases rates of anxiety, sleep disruption, digestive issues, eating anomalies, weight gain and weight loss, and all the other ‘insignificant’ little physical problems we brush aside as ‘getting older’ or ‘just stress.’
But stress from what? You even say it’s stress and then don’t give it a further thought. Like it is somehow ok to have these weird little maladies, and to even acknowledge a potentially significant cause of them, and then just accept it. ‘It’s life!’ – like it is supposed to happen. It isn’t!
Prolonged stress is NEVER a good thing, ever. And do not ever pay heed to those sh*tty articles and influencers who tell you stress is good for you. It isn’t. Ok? It just ISN’T!
So ask yourself now; where is this ‘stress’ coming from. This ‘stress’ which is causing you overeat, or not eat at all. Causing you to lay awake at night, to feel anxiety more and more often, and to snap at your colleagues, even your family. Where is the cause?
Is it:
- from being trapped in a role that never fits quite right?
- from constantly masking or forcing yourself into a shape that isn’t yours?
- from tolerating the slow grind of “This isn’t me,” repeated daily?
At some point, your body starts nudging.
Then it starts negotiating.
Then it starts refusing.
And then it’s too late.
Underperformance & Imposter Syndrome
Feeling like you’re always behind, even when you’re not.
Here’s the strange thing about imposter syndrome: it shows up most fiercely when we’re talented but misplaced.
The CIPD found that career mismatch strongly correlates with underperformance, not because people lack ability, but because they’re working against their natural strengths.
This manifests itself in you in a number of ways:
- You doubt yourself.
- You compare yourself.
- You feel “behind” even when you’re working harder than anyone can see.
But you are not falling short – you are climbing the wrong bl00dy mountain!
And it’s impossible to feel like an expert when the work itself pushes you away.
Feeling Stuck and Stalled
When every year feels like the year before it.
Here’s another thing about being in the wrong career: it numbs your sense of movement. Your sense of progress.
OECD data shows that people in mismatched roles experience slower wage growth, fewer opportunities, and less upward momentum. When this affects you, it isn’t because you are incapable, it is because you’re not energised or visible in the ways that matter.
You begin to stop spotting opportunities. Others begin to stop putting you forward for them, and in turn you stop imagining a positive future inside the work at all.
Every year becomes a barely discernible repeat of the last, with a little less optimism and a little more “Is this really it?”
So what? It’s my fault?
No – it’s about having the right fit, not about you being at fault. But it is ONLY you who can do something about it once you have noticed it.
You see, career incompatibility doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means the container you’re in is too small, too lumpy, and it’s probably the wrong shape altogether. And, when it’s wrong, it takes everything you’ve got just to stand still.
When the job is right, you feel it. And you don’t feel it because it is easy. You feel it because it excites you, fires you up, stretches you, and you feel the growth it lends to you.
Please, if it is time for you to make a change. Begin it.
Begin it Now.
Big Love. X
Carl.
Resources
You can take a look at the following studies to read more about this subject. They have helped me to write this piece so I urge you to look them up:
Zeng & Hu (2024) - “A study of the psychological mechanisms of job burnout: implications of person–job fit and person–organization fit”
Frontiers in Psychology - Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being (2016)
PubMed - Person–Job Fit & Person–Group Fit in Medical Professionals (2019-ish)
PubMed - Person-Vocation Fit & Burnout among Resident Physicians (2025)
Frontiers in Psychiatry - Person–Organization Fit & Teacher Burnout (2022)
PubMed - P-O Fit & Burnout in Academic Researchers during COVID-19
MDPI - “Mismatched, but Not Aware of It? How Subjective and Objective Skill Mismatch Affects Job Satisfaction”
BMC Psychology - Career Adaptability, P-O Fit & Work Engagement (2024)
Productivity.ac.uk / UK Labour Force Survey Analysis
Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies - P-J & P-O Fit & Performance
Gallup - “About three in four employees in the U.S. experience workplace burnout at least sometimes.”
Gallup - “When people are engaged but not thriving, they report 61 % higher likelihood of burnout often or always; 48 % higher likelihood of daily stress; 66 % higher likelihood of daily worry…”
CIPD (UK) - “Almost half (49 %) of UK workers are in jobs they are either under- or over-skilled for.”
CIPD - Skills mismatches “manifest in … lower job satisfaction, lower productivity, lower confidence and higher stress.”
CIPD - “Graduates who feel over-qualified in their jobs experience considerably poorer job quality than graduates who feel their qualifications match their roles.”
