Times of crisis and significant stress can bring great clarity to our lives. What is important at home and in work becomes obvious because demands are immediate and sometimes life changing.
It can be a career wake-up call for both satisfaction and a need for action.
Here are some of the positive and negative things I see as possible career questions and opportunities presenting themselves because of the situation we are now dealing with.
How This Career Wake-Up Call Could be Positive
Realize I really like this career. When times are tough, we often take an inventory of our personal life and career. Work brings stability, distraction, and a sense of competence. The career wake-up call is the realization you enjoy and benefit from working, particularly in your current place of employment. Many of us don’t do that simple check-in. Too often we dwell on the negatives as petty as they might be. To love your career is a gift. Many people don’t have this luxury, but you do.
See your boss in a different light. How people behave in a crisis is another career wake-up call. Did your boss take care of you and the others on the team? How? If yes, how did that alter your view of him/her. Certain people rise to the occasion in times of trouble — many fail. Admiring the person an individual works for/with is an important reason people stay with an organization. What is currently happening is a work event you won’t easily forget. I’ve heard some horrific and selfish stories recently. In each case the victims are thinking of a career change. Hope it is not you.
Lovin’ the office more. Can’t tell you how many of my executive coaching clients have told me, “I never appreciated how much I like working in an office.” A month of Zoom meetings, limited people contact, and the added time it takes to get things done when the team is separated has become obvious. Some people like the isolation and privacy of working from home, most prefer face-to-face contact.
Missing colleagues and work friends. Isolation can be lonely. The casual encounters you have with people at work are now very restricted. The wake-up call just might be, “I need to be around people, especially people who….” It could influence whether you accept a new position or transfer. It might also change your thoughts about working remotely if offered after everything settles.
Being part of something bigger. Times of crisis offer the opportunity to be part of larger and better solutions. Well-run organizations use the talents of all the staff. Maybe you were tagged to be a strategist, influencer, or subject leader. You had not observed that part of the organization before because it wasn’t necessary. Now it is clear, and you like the feeling of satisfaction you get when helping the company and its people. The career wake-up call might just be, “Can I play a bigger role in my career?”
Others have it tougher. If you were having a “woe is me” moment, the wake-up call in troubling times is to admit you have it pretty good. This realization hopefully brings gratitude and empathy as well as a call to action. How your employer views and acts upon the broader situation might impact your desire to either stay or leave sometime in the future. Or, get you contemplating a career change.
How This Wake-Up Call Could be Negative
Questioning what you do. Significant disruption can cause each of us to think “Why am I here, doing this?” In times of suffering, the altruist in each of us questions if our career is relevant, a genuine representation of our true self, or a down right waste of time and talent. It’s not a bad exercise to try. Dig deep and question why you are in your present job and does it honor the genuine you.
Is where you work not working. People were ignored or forgotten in the moment of crisis, logistics were handled poorly, or communications was limited or wrong. Whatever it is/was makes you wonder, “Am I in the right place?” You wouldn’t be the first person with the perfect career, in the right job, in the wrong place.
How you work. All organizations have a work culture. Some are collaborative or team-driven; attract sole contributors or rely on outsiders. The style can be competitive, aggressive, supportive, even dictatorial. Organizations can be hierarchical or flat. Some cultures and structures are a better fit for you. The question becomes is it the entire company or just this division, team, or boss that isn’t working for you?
No next step. Difficult times, when staff numbers are being lowered and opportunities closed, call for anyone looking to move up in their career to question, “Is there room for advancement?” Your perception will depend on how ambitious and willing you are. Take a realistic look at your trajectory. How long have you worked at this level and what major contributions have you made? Are others advancing faster than you? Can you learn more in your present position? Do you have a mentor and an advocate who will help you? If the answers to most of these questions are not positive it might be time to listen to the career wake-up call and look elsewhere, internally or externally.
Experienced another side of your boss. Under high stress people can behave in very different ways. Sometimes it’s ugly. Our expectation is that leaders will be adult, levelheaded, honest, and empathetic. It’s not always the case. Bad or questionable behavior makes you think, “Am I in danger, what will he/she do next?” It is anxiety provoking and leaves an imprint on our memory that is hard to shake.
Does your employer care about you? On the surface this may sound naïve. It’s not the role of the company to care about me, you say! But it is. High functioning workplaces take employees into consideration with every decision. They know loyalty and quality of work grows when people feel committed to a boss, a department, or an employer. If you think you are a number, a position rather than a person, or the corporate attitude is “he/she can be replaced,” maybe you need another workplace.
A career wake-up call need not be a negative event — it’s an opportunity to weigh the positive and negative, aspects of the career you have chosen, the work you do, where you do it, and with whom. For many of us this exercise will reinforce the joy, pride, and sense of achievement we feel about our work life. For others it is a more objective look at the many dimensions of a career and possibly highlight areas for change or adjustment. Give it some thought.
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