Professional Development – Artificial Employment Restraints
Fear and uncertainty… These two elements drive an individual to remain in a less than satisfying, sometimes degrading, and typically resented employment situation. While here in the United States no one can be truly forced to work, many face artificial employment restraints holding them to a position or a company.[wcm_restrict plans=”79681, 25542, 25653″]
If fear and uncertainty prevent one from acting to the benefit of his or her career and happiness, how then can these obstacles be overcome?
Recognizing the Restraints
Overcoming fear and uncertainty is never easy. In order to do so, the StrategyDriven Professional must first face his or her fear and then confront it through deliberate action that mitigates or nullifies the underlying causes. By doing so, the professional finds those things binding him or her to a position or employer are unfounded conjectures or temporary circumstances that can be effectively eliminated. Some of the artificial restraints holding professionals back include:
Fear of Seeking a New Opportunity
- Fear that one will not be attractive to potential employers, particularly for immaterial reasons or personal characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, race, etcetera)
- Fear of reprisal if one’s current employer discovers his or her ongoing job search, including intra company moves
- Concern that one’s departure would adversely impact a client, ongoing project, department, or overall organization
Fear of Assuming a New Role
- Fear of not being able to perform at the next level or in the new position
- Fear of not being adaptable to new a new corporate structure, policies, and procedures
- Uncertainty in one’s ability to meet, work with, and relate to new people including superiors, peers, and subordinates
- Uncertainty in the new position’s long-term viability (though one’s current positional viability often has an appearance of permanence that does not exist)
Fear of Loss
- Fear of loss of connectedness and association with individuals that have become more than coworkers, individuals one has bonded with through difficult and joyous times
- Fear of diminished compensation
- Requirement to return a hiring bonus
- Forfeiture of a soon to be paid performance bonus (for those remitted routinely such as annual or quarterly individual performance bonus or event completion payouts)
- Abandonment of a near-term promotion or assignment opportunity
- Fear of economic recessions, the diminishing of personal wealth and the loss of property
- Uncertainty surrounding living conditions, such as the need to relocate, travel, vacation, etcetera
Removing the Restraints
While not intending to delegitimize any of the aforementioned retainers, it is important for the StrategyDriven Professional to bear in mind certain balancing facts.
- Employers discovering that valued employees are considering other positions, more often concerned with employee retention than immediate dismissal or retribution
- Viable organizations are built on more than the knowledge, skills, and experiences of one individual. Those that are not, place all of organization members at grave employment risk
- The hiring organization, by virtue of having extended an employment offer, has believes the professional possesses those qualities, skills, experiences, and knowledge to successfully perform in the position
- New personal relationships will develop with those in the new organization, they always do. Furthermore, new employees tend to draw the curiosity and interest of those already within the organization; helping to further foster personal connections
- Just because a job is sought and an offer tendered, does not mean the opportunity has to be accepted
- No one retains a lifetime employment contract with any employer
- Full compensation – base salary, benefits, training reimbursement, vacation, holidays, travel, working conditions and hours, etcetera – are all up to negotiation, such that any employment offer can be tailored to satisfy most personal needs or, again, does not need to be accepted
After intellectually understanding of employment restraint realities, the StrategyDriven Professional can act to remove the obstacles through deliberate preparation that often includes the following:
- Ongoing education and training to both sharpen and broaden knowledge, skills, and experiences
- Maintaining good mental health by focusing on one’s successes and learning from one’s shortfalls
- Achieving good physical health through sound diet, exercise, and sleep habits
- Relieving stress by taking the needed mental and physical breaks
- Securing one’s financial wellbeing by living within one’s means and building the financial reserves that enable employment transitions regardless of the motivating factors
- Developing a personal support network of individuals who provide encouragement and constructive advice to aid the professional in the achievement of his or her personal and professional goals
Final Thought…
Out perceptions make the circumstances holding us in an undesirable employment situation very real. Yet the formula for breaking these bonds is straightforward… identify restraining factors, confront these fears and uncertainties by defining and understanding them, and develop and implement an action plan to overcome them. By following these simple steps, an individual will create confidence, earn happiness and respect, and begin the journey to becoming truly StrategyDriven.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”79681, 25542, 25653″]
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Every manager should seek to know the stay/leave propensity of his or her subordinates and certainly that of top performers. While true knowledge of others’ intentions is unknowable and unpredictable opportunities arise, there are artificial retention mechanisms and observable signs that together suggest an individual’s inclination. Recognizing these signs and factoring them into an assessment of employee loss risk is important to a manager’s ability to retain top talent.[wcm_restrict plans=”75992, 25542, 25653″]
“The wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease.”