By Gary Joseph Grappo

"Employees are surfing the Internet at work, calling in sick when they really feel fine and abandoning successful careers to go back to school,"says Stephanie Armour in her USA Today article,

Nearly 45% of hiring experts say their firm lost top workers in 1998 because the company was unable to provide them with challenging growth opportunities.

What is the fuel behind this national boredom and further fueling a massive desire for what I call Career ReExplosion? Several trends are detonating a bomb that has been waiting to happen:

• Baby Boomers Many have already put more than twenty years into a job and are not looking forward to a continued pattern of a lack of job stimulation.

• Repetitive Service Jobs Service jobs have become the repetitive- type factory jobs of the 2000s. The number of service jobs rose from about 82 million in 1989 to 102 million in March 1999 according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

• The Downsizing of American Businesses In many cases, employees are working longer hours, doing more tasks, and even eating lunch at their desk in order to meet the demands of companies. Many experts agree this has become a major force in stressing workers and propelling them to pursue dream careers.

With all that said, here are my top ten warning signs that you are in need of a Career ReExplosion. Circle the ones that apply to you.

Top Ten Career ReExplosion Warning Signs

1) A constant feeling of anger toward bosses and/or coworkers
2) Feeling helpless at work and more like a victim than a champion
3) A daily sense of being overwhelmed and can never get it all done
4) Being given and/or not taking any new, creative and challenging responsibilities
5) A constant sense of physical fatigue that never seems to go away
6) Maintaining a lazy attitude of, "don't mistake me for someone who cares"
7) Withdrawing from people more and more in your personal and professional life
8) Increased use of alcohol or the use of drugs
9) Surfing the Internet when you should be working
10) Calling in sick when you're really not

If you circled more than one of the above, you need a change. You can execute your own career reinvention by reading and following the action plan in my latest career guidebook, Career ReExplosion!

Gary Joseph Grappo is a best-selling author (Get the Job You Want In Thirty Days, Berkley, 1998) and career guru. His most recent book is Career ReExplosion (To purchase a copy, click here).

His Web site can be found at www.careeredgeonline.com