Dreaming about
your job

Work fills a big part of the waking week, so it's no surprise it follows you into sleep. Dreaming about your job usually means work is still on your mind after hours, whether it's a task you haven't finished, a meeting you're dreading or a colleague you can't figure out. Most work dreams are about pressure, belonging and how you're valued, more than about the job itself.

Which job it was, and what happened in it, decides the reading. Your current job points to now, an old job to the person you were then, and a job you've never had to a role you're curious about or afraid of. How you felt is the other half, since the same office can be a place of panic in one dream and pride in another.

What dreaming about your job means

Dreams track what you spend your days doing and worrying about,^[1] and work is often both. The readings below go from the most literal to the least.

A task you haven't settled

A dream of the same spreadsheet, the same customer or the same broken machine is often just the job continuing at night. These dreams come when a deadline is close or a problem refuses to be solved. They're tiring, but the message is plain, because something at work needs dealing with or needs to be left at the door.

How you're valued

Many job dreams are about status. Being praised, overlooked, demoted or promoted in front of colleagues is about how you feel you're seen. If the dream had your boss or coworkers judging you, ask whether you've been waiting for recognition that hasn't come.

Where you're heading

A job you've never had, in a field you've never tried, can be about direction. You're curious about another life, or quietly bored with this one. The researcher Bill Domhoff argued that dreams are built from your real interests and concerns,^[2] so a dream that keeps putting you in a different job is worth noticing.

Dreaming about your old job

The old job is the most searched version, and the most common. You're back at the store, the school or the hospital you left years ago, sometimes with the same people, sometimes doing a job you no longer know how to do. These dreams tend to come when something in your life now echoes that time, like the same kind of pressure, a manager who reminds you of an old one, or a feeling of being stuck. If you left on bad terms, the dream may be finishing that story. Going back in a dream doesn't mean you want to go back for real. It usually means the lesson from that place is relevant again.

Dreaming about losing your job

Being fired, laid off or walked out of the building is about security, money and self-worth all at once. It's common during reorganizations, performance reviews and slow quarters, and also when nothing is wrong at work but money is tight elsewhere. If you felt relief in the dream, look at that too, because you may be readier to quit your job than you've admitted.

Dreaming about being late or unprepared at work

Arriving late, missing a meeting or turning up without the work you were supposed to bring is the office version of the exam dream. It points to feeling behind, often during a busy stretch when there's simply too much to keep track of. If being late is a theme in your dreams, it tends to follow periods of overload.

Dreaming about starting a new job

A first day, a new badge, a desk you don't know yet is about beginnings and the nerves that come with them. If you're actually starting somewhere new, the dream is rehearsal. If you're not, it may point to a change you want, in work or anywhere else.

Dreaming about your job according to Jung and Freud

A job is both a role you play and a run of small tests, and each man had something to say about one of them.

Jung: the job as your persona

Persona was Jung's word for the public face, the mask that comes with a role, a title or a uniform,^[3] and a job is the sturdiest one most of us wear. Read that way, a dream of a badge that no longer opens the door, a uniform that doesn't fit or a desk that has moved is about the mask and how well it still sits. He didn't write about offices, so this is his idea laid over yours. An old job asks which version of the mask you're still wearing without noticing.

Freud: the test you've already passed

Freud wrote about exam dreams, and his reading was that you dream of a test you passed long ago, as reassurance before a real one.^[4] Turning up at work unprepared has the same shape. Applied his way, the dream digs out an old scare you got through to tell you that tomorrow's review or presentation is one you can handle. He also held that dreams borrow their images from the day before, which for work dreams hardly needs saying, and he'd ask which scrap of yesterday's workday the dream grabbed first.

Questions to ask about your job dream

Before reading too much into it, ask yourself these.

• Which job was it: your current one, an old one or one you've never had?
• Who was there, and how did they treat you?
• What went wrong, or right?
• What's happening at work this week that you haven't resolved?

Oniri asks what your work has been like lately before reading a job dream, so a dream about your old restaurant gets read against your new office.