When you fall victim to some form of corporate insanity, it doesn’t just set your career back – it can cripple your professional confidence and make you doubt your ability to realise your long term ambitions.
On top of that, the bogey man of today’s employment market can be the all pervading fear factor, threatening to annihilate you if you dare reassert some control.
Fortunately, there are some simple, yet effective, reframes you can do that allow you to see things in a more self-supporting way.
The following paragraphs give you a step-by-step process to getting your career back on track.
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Step away from the victim role
Unfair things shouldn’t happen to good people. But they do.
I see it all the time at the moment. Talented professionals falling foul of politics around promotion processes; loyal workers expected to put up with unilateral changes to their employment conditions; team stars becoming scapegoats because they chose to speak out against unhealthy dynamics.
A degree of positive venting about whatever happened is normal and healthy. But guard against ongoing bitching to anyone in your professional network. The sad truth is that it does you more harm than the company that has wronged you.
You absolutely must decide to take your power back from the situation and move on.
That mindset switch of itself jolts you from being victim, to being resourceful.
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Challenge your assumptions about the situation
A guy I coached recently was distraught when he not only failed a partnership board but was told never to darken its doors again. And, yes, his bosses had been entirely remiss in putting him forward without having supported and mentored him. But he’d naively gone through the process believing he’d get a coveted share in the company purely on merit. He hadn’t considered the need to show an ability to understand company politics, or to have networked with the decision makers ahead of the board.
Companies are not fair places. They are business institutions, and play by business rules. You are completely dispensable to them, whether they want you to believe that or not.
Look yourself in the mirror and ask what faulty beliefs you’ve been holding about the situation in which you find yourself. See how hanging onto those assumptions is keeping you stuck. Decide what you need to believe instead.
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Ask yourself how okay things are for you
Once you’ve got yourself into a more rational mindset about things, it’s time to confront whether – or not – you’re prepared to accommodate the injustice that’s been served up to you. Instead of imagining that you have to put up and shut up, see instead the choice you have.
How okay is it really for you to accept what’s been left with you? If you’re happy to live with the situation – if you can see it opportunity in it and make it work for you – that’s one thing. But, if it has crossed a fundamental boundary for you, you need to acknowledge that to yourself.
You are not obliged to make yourself crazy trying to justify to yourself that something’s okay when it is not.
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Explore your move-forward options
Coming to this choice point has allowed you to get considerable energy back. The next step then is around how you direct that into action that allows you to move on positively.
What do you want for yourself now? How are you going to achieve that?
If you’ve decided that for now you’re going to see the lesson in what’s happened and stick around where you are, what’s in that for you? With that in mind, how are you going to re-engage?
If you’ve chosen that what’s happened is insurmountable, what are you going to do to take yourself positively out of your current situation? What scenarios are open and fruitful that are obvious? What are the more blue sky and out there opportunities that excite you? What small experiments can you make that allow you to test things out while keeping your options open?
Use these four steps to get your passion for your career back on track
There’s no doubting the enthusiasm for work and life you can get from thinking of yourself as a new work pioneer. But sometimes the wheels come off the track. The way back is through seeing the opportunity in the situation using the steps above. Follow them and you’re work life will once more be rocking.
So, where will these steps take you? What has resonated with you most here, and how can you use this thinking to up the ante on your working life?
photo credit: woodleywonderworks
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A brilliantly written piece by Christine and shows a lot of insight . I can relate to a lot of what she says, and it is refreshing to note that this is a common problem these days, so often when put in this situation you feel that you are the ONLY ONE this has happened to, and this is where the negative influences come from. Christine is absolutely right in everything she says, remember, it is a sign of strength of character if you can ride above adversity, and turn the negative to a positive. At the time it feels that this will be impossible to achieve, but everything in life works for a common good, invariably you will find that this enforced change of direction will eventually prove to be something positive, you have just got to believe in yourself! Well done Christine
Thanks SO much, Malcolm.
Part of the reason I wanted to write this piece was to normalise some of what I hear about almost daily. In his book The Corporation, Joel Bakan reckoned that companies were psychopathic in their nature. I wouldn’t disagree. The thing about psychopaths is that they disown the emotional impact of their behaviour and leave their “victims” to carry more than their fair share of the resulting upset. Excuse my language here, but that can be a real “head fuck”.
While I’m not anti-corporations – lots of people have very good working lives there – I am pro individuals being real about what’s what in the business world and not buying into bullshit. I wanted to name stuff I see happening and give people tools to deal with it.
Great to see you and thanks again for sharing.
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Hi Christine,
) was having patience and faith that I’d move on. I felt very stuck for a few months but knew that I had to leave. It paid off in the end and as with many things in life that experience has pushed me towards better things as I am now a coach and mentor which is what I have been working towards.
I agree with Malcolm, this is a very insightful post. I felt like you were describing some of the experiences I had in my last job! It can be really hard to be proactive when the chips are against you at work, but applying these suggestions does make a difference. A big thing for me (an ongoing lesson
Thanks for your insight as always,
Jen
Thanks, Jen.
When a whole system is going in one direction and you appear to be the only apparent one out of step it can be difficult to trust that it is crazy not you. Faith and patience are critical qualities that sometimes get challenged into being in tough situations. I’m so glad that you found your way through and are doing your coaching and mentoring work, which I know you very much enjoy. And thank you for being an example of what’s possible on the basis of having lived through this kind of scenario yourself.
I complete agree with Jen and Malcolm, Christine this is a brilliantly insightful post.
I believe strongly, as you do, that when situations like this arise is crucial that we look at things as they really are, not as what we think they are (the victim role).
The other important part of this process is taking action when you’ve decided what you are wanting to do. Being stuck wanting to do, but doing nothing isn’t going to benefit you isn’t it?
Great post
Thanks, Ben, I appreciate the feedback.
And you’re right about the taking action bit. It’s easy to bitch and moan, but real change only happens when we decide to do something.