Imagine waking up every Monday thinking I hate my job but I need money. Well, it doesn’t have to be that way.

A few years ago, I came across Designing Your Life, a book written by Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It’s one of those books you never forget. The sort that becomes a bit of a bible for life.

Their follow-up book, Designing Your New Work Life, explores how we can use design thinking to transform our careers, adapt to disruption and create work that fits the life we actually want.

One of the reasons the book resonated so deeply with me is because it tackles a challenge I see every week in my coaching conversations.

People don’t always walk into a session saying:

“I hate my job but I need money.”

However, that’s often what sits underneath the frustration.

They’re successful on paper, their salary is good, their colleagues are fine – even friends potentially, and they’re not in a totally toxic workplace.

Yet something feels off, they’re restless, feel flat and have a sense of unfulfillment. They’re mostly wondering:

• Is this it?
• Have I outgrown this?
• Am I ungrateful?
• Should I quit?

The reality is that many people feel stuck because they hate their job but need the money, security, flexibility or benefits that come with it and that can make career decisions feel impossible. Unfortunately this often leads to binary thinking:

• Stay and be miserable.
• Leave and start again.

But what if there were more options?

I Hate My Job But I Need Money: What Should I Do?

If you’ve found yourself searching “I hate my job but I need money”, you’re not alone. Most people assume their only choices are to stay where they are or hand in their resignation. However, Burnett and Evans suggest there are actually four ways to redesign your working life before making a dramatic move.

They call them the 4 Rs.

1. Reframe

Reframing is about changing your relationship with your current role. This isn’t toxic positivity. and’ it’s not pretending everything is fine. But it is about asking:

• What purpose is this role serving right now?
• What skills, experience or connections can I gain from this situation?
• How can I make this role good enough for now while I figure out my next move?

Sometimes the role itself doesn’t change, but the meaning we attach to it does. One of the examples in the book involves a woman named Darcy who is struggling with a difficult boss. Through reframing, she begins to see that her current role may be helping her develop resilience, leadership capability, industry expertise and financial security while she plans her next chapter.

The situation is far from ideal but it dose become more purposeful and sometimes that’s enough for now.

2. Remodel

Many of us assume our jobs are fixed but often there is more flexibility than we realise. Remodelling means shaping your role to include more of what energises you and less of what drains you. Small shifts can have a surprisingly large impact.

Ask yourself:

• What part of my work do I enjoy most?
• What am I good at that I rarely get the chance to use?
• What responsibilities would make my work more meaningful?

In the book, Darcy works in telesales but discovers she loves coaching people. She starts mentoring colleagues informally and, over time, coaching becomes a recognised part of her role. Nothing changed overnight but one small experiment opened a new door.

3. Relocate

Sometimes the issue isn’t the work itself, it’s the environment. Relocating doesn’t necessarily mean leaving your employer, it could mean moving to a different team, department, project, location or organisation.

Ask yourself:

• Are there teams or functions that interest me more?
• Who could I speak to about opportunities internally?
• What transferable skills could I take elsewhere?

Many people underestimate how much of their experience can travel with them. The skills you’ve built over years don’t disappear simply because you change roles. In Darcy’s case, relocating eventually led her from telesales into a full-time coaching position within the same organisation.

4. Reinvent

Reinvention is the option most people think about first and it’s also the biggest shift. This is where you create an entirely new career path, either within your current organisation or beyond it.

Ask yourself:

• If I were starting again, what would I be curious to explore?
• What skills would I need to develop?
• How could I test this idea before making a full transition?

What I particularly love about Burnett and Evans’ approach is that they don’t encourage people to leap blindly into the unknown, instead, they advocate experimentation. In an alternative to the knee jerk reaction of just leaving you can test ideas, build skills, have conversations and gather evidence before making a significant move.

The Process: Curiosity Before Commitment

Whether you’re considering a small shift or a complete reinvention, Burnett and Evans’ suggest four simple steps:

Get curious – Explore what interests you without immediately worrying about how it will work.

Talk to people – Have conversations with people doing work that intrigues you.

Try stuff – Run experiments before making major decisions.

Tell your story – Share your strengths, interests and aspirations so opportunities have a chance to find you.

My biggest takeaway from the book is simple:

Don’t resign before you’ve explored how you might redesign.

If you’re currently thinking “I hate my job but I need money”, know that you’re not necessarily trapped, you might reframe your situation or remodel your role or relocate internally or externally or you might even reinvent entirely.

Sometimes leaving is the right decision. But when that decision comes from clarity rather than frustration, you’re far more likely to create a next chapter that genuinely fits.

If you’re sitting at a career crossroads and wondering what your options really are, give me a shout and book an intro call here. Through 1:1 coaching and my XRoads Program, I help people explore, test and navigate these possibilities in the real world, rather than making decisions based on assumptions alone.