FINDING THE COURAGE TO CHANGE YOUR EMPLOYMENT
For some people changing jobs is safer than staying put
David Lawson
In a recent column, we had a brief look at the many people today who voluntarily change their employment status. They leave their jobs without a trace of regret or a backwards glance, or plan a career change, remaining with their existing employer only until they explore new career directions.
The willingness to assume the risks inherent in changing jobs and careers is a relatively recent phenomenon. We don’t have to go back too far to find a time when loyalty to a company and a company’s loyalty to its employees were the defining features of employment relationships.
You found a job, you kept the job; eventually you retired with the gold watch and pension. Your work was your life, a cornerstone of your identity, and few people changed their employment lightly or without being aware that something fundamental in how they viewed themselves and would be viewed by others changed with it.
But that was then and this most surely is not. The world of work has changed dramatically as have the attitudes many workers bring to their employers and employment. Many people have as much loyalty to their employers as their employers have toward them, which is to say, not much at all.
This is a natural outcome of the efficiencies and competition that have accompanied Canada’s entry into the international marketplace. Jobs are readily shipped abroad if profits will increase. As long as you’re contributing something of value to the needs and goals of your employer, you’re safe. If you’re not or not performing well enough, you’re out of there.
The workplace is a much harsher place today than it once was for many people. The work day has extended and there’s more to be accomplished by fewer employees. Don’t drop the ball because there’s someone at the door ready to pick it up and run with it leaving you on the sidelines.
Work hard, get ahead. Make sure that family, friends, volunteer and community service and personal interests don’t conflict with your workplace responsibilities, and if they do, it’s work first, every time. Get there early, stay late, smile and be enthusiastic, however you’re feeling.
Well, this simply doesn’t and can’t work for many people. Many Canadians aren’t willing to endure the pressures and anxieties that global competition and efficiency demand. They know that jobs come and go but family, friends and community endure and need to be nurtured and supported. They seek work consistent with a full and rich life and aren’t willing to settle.
Others demand meaning in their work beyond what people anticipated even twenty years ago. A job isn’t simply a place to demonstrate expertise and talents; it’s intimately related to the beliefs and principles through which people communicate and know who they are. Many individuals are no longer willing to work at activities they don’t believe are important or meaningful or contribute to ends they don’t value.
And work conditions and behaviours that people once tolerated are simply no longer regarded as acceptable. Many employees won’t work for or with mean people; they won’t accept harassment or intimidation as conditions of employment, no matter what rewards may ensue. They know their rights as workers and human beings and would rather move on than be abused.
So many workers are choosing to look closely and critically at their employers and the work in which they are engaged. They are searching for consonance between who they are and what they do and if they don’t find it, they are prepared to change employers and career directions.
This can make for a volatile workplace and require sensitivity and flexibility on the part of employers seeking to retain valued workers. It can also require risk-taking and courage from people ready and willing to do what’s necessary to find meaning in their work. Of course, that’s what self-actualization has always been all about.
David Lawson is a career counsellor with Career Solutions in Burlington specializing in helping secondary and post-secondary students and adults manage educational and career planning challenges. He can be reached at or www.lawsoncareersolutions.ca