Not all who dream of career change are lost. I’ve read several articles over the past week that have discussed variants on the idea that the pandemic has led people to reconsider their current jobs and their overall career trajectory. More than one story tried to tie this to the concept of YOLO — people realizing in the face of a worldwide crisis that you only live once. I think there’s probably some merit to that idea — major life events frequently lead to a reckoning and re-evaluation.
But there’s been an undertone to some of these articles that I don’t agree with. And it’s not just that I think it’s sort of silly to say that this is only something that primarily millennials are grappling with. In fact, a Harris Poll conducted for Fast Company showed that more than half of U.S. workers are considering a job change this year, so I really don’t think it’s just that millennials have had a unique epiphany.
Is it necessarily reckless to leave a stable job in the middle of a pandemic? I don’t think there’s any one answer to that question. Obviously, there are real world considerations around health insurance, being able to pay your bills, etc., that need to be part of the calculus. But is it actually any more risky to think of switching jobs right now than any other time?
Full disclosure — I am someone who has switched jobs/roles/positions more frequently than most of my friends, so maybe I’m not the norm. But looking back on my twists and turns in the more than 20 years since I got my Ph.D., I am reminded of this wisdom from Anne Lamott’s classic Bird by Bird:
“E.L. Doctorow said once said that ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.”
In my experience, a full, vibrant, and successful career can be created by only seeing as far as your headlights, as well. And, I think that works most effectively when you are moving toward something that is meaningful for you. So, you can use the experience of working for a crappy boss as the ringing bell that tells you that it’s time to look for something else. Or, as in the health care field right now, where a Kaiser Foundation — Washington Post poll found that 3 out of 10 health care workers are considering leaving their jobs, maybe you’re feeling more than a little burned out right now.
Great! Use that burnout to tell you something — those feelings (or maybe it’s numbness at this point) probably have some really good information for you about whether it might be time to act. But it’s not just about realizing that there’s something you want to move away from. If that’s the main source of information that you use as you contemplate a career change, I believe that you’re more likely to make a reactive choice that functions more like driving with your rearview mirror rather than using your headlights. Making career choices just to get away from something in the present or the past probably isn’t going to lead you in productive direction.
In psychology, there’s a distinction between making a choice that’s based on appetitive motivation (think appetite — something that you crave or desire) vs. making a choice that’s based on avoiding aversives (think escaping something negative). Paying attention to things in your job that are consistently aversive to you is important. I mean, you’re never going to have a job where you’re not doing anything that’s unpleasant or negative — that’s why they call it a JOB! But hopefully the majority of your day isn’t taken up by experiences in the aversive category. At the same time, I do believe that you can create an interesting and cohesive career by moving toward those appetitive motivations that are important to you.
Want to go into business for yourself? You’re not the only one.
Want to get back into doing something with more direct impact on people’s lives? There are so many ways you can do that.
Want to work at a place/for a boss who appreciates your full skillset? I bet you can find somewhere that would meet that goal!
So, if you’re feeling burned out, or like your job is meaningless, or you just can’t work much longer for this new boss who doesn’t value what you have to offer, take heart. Maybe you feel like you could put up with that at another time in your life, but not on top of all of the weirdness and stress of a global pandemic that is dragging on and making everything more complicated. Because I can tell you that you’re not alone. That experience resonates with my experience as an executive coach and mentor right now — virtually everyone I’ve talked to recently is contemplating or taking action on making a job change!
You don’t even have to know exactly where this next step is going to take you in the totality of your career. But if you can choose the next step based on pointing your headlights toward whatever is an appetitive motivation for you, I bet you can make a good decision that moves you forward in your journey. And if you’re a boss who is concerned with how to keep your excellent team together, when more than half of U.S. workers are considering switching jobs, maybe there’s a less expensive solution than broad scale retention bonuses — what if you took the time to figure out what would be a personalized, appetitive motivator for your star employees and got creative about how to provide more of that type of natural reinforcement in the jobs they already have?
So, are you burned out right now? Probably.
Do you only live once? As far as we know.
Can you use the wisdom of your own values to guide you in making a meaningful and successful career change, even in the middle of the pandemic? Most definitely.
