When the unemployment rate is this low, lower than it has been since 1976 [recorded history], it is time to do a thorough inventory of what is working and what is not in your current career situation. If displeased in some ways, in what exact ways are you displeased and for how long?
Has the salary not been adequate to your efforts and your talents? Has the work been too monotonous or dull? Have other colleagues lacked ambition or needed skills or social ingenuity? Has the boss been either absent, or omnipresent? Has the workload been unrealistic, and/or unfulfilling? Do thoughts of doing this work into the unknown future make you panic?
Before you start dreaming of escape, there is some serious work to do to understand what you can perhaps salvage from the situation – or if there is not more value than you realize in the job now in hand. After all, searching for a new job will take time and energy, and an employer faced with having to hire in these times with unemployment rates so low will perhaps have a difficult time to replace you.
You actually may now be in a strong position to negotiate a better deal for yourself, maybe even landing a more fulfilling position within the same company if you can successfully negotiate with your employer.
Hopefully you have not been unhappy for some time, and therefore not doing the job as well as you might have otherwise if inspired – this is a concern to anyone experiencing burnout. Burnout is a dangerous work situation because there is no easy fix, and often when burned out, you do not feel ready to be on the market looking for a new position.
It is always better to be searching for work when feeling light, inspired, ambitious. But if you want to take charge of a difficult situation and you know you are appreciated by your colleagues, and your boss as well, you stand a very strong chance at this moment in time to negotiate your way into a more attractive situation for yourself. The key is to fully understand your value in the marketplace and how to sell your strengths with both resolve and calm.
First assess your performance over the past year, or the past two years during Covid-19. Did you have to work remotely? Did that situation cause you stress? Isolation? Are the emotions from that situation colouring now how you feel about your company, and your position within it? Really scrutinize the reasons for your unhappiness in your job and list them in the order of their difficulty for you, with reason number one having the greatest negative impact. Really think about this – analyze the situation carefully.
Ask yourself what would need to change within your work situation to make you more satisfied, fulfilled? Higher salary? More benefits? More fulfilling work in areas where you have strengths you either have already or wish to develop? Different types of colleagues? More potential for creativity, or mobility? What type of work most excites you?
Is it possible to move into that type of work in your current workplace or closer to it? Be thorough in your analysis and involve others you trust in your thinking. Seek feedback.
Prepare an ideal work package for yourself where you create the position that will not only satisfy you, but also resolve some problems you know to exist in your workplace. Request a meeting with your employer to present this new role.
Do not take it for granted you know how to present it well: practice your presentation, ideally with someone you trust watching you to offer feedback or with a Career Coach. Show your enthusiasm and truly try to resolve issues your boss has been trying to fix or problems that you understand have been costing the company money.
In this way, you will gain a willing audience. Merge your own desires with that of your employer – find an innovative solution for you both that will see you winning over time precisely what you want.
If you have done your homework, and you present well, and you have been doing good work all along, the end result just may be the new job you dreamed of – at least undoubtedly you will emerge from that meeting with some positive outcomes and some well-earned new respect from your employer. Definitely you will be in a better position to then evaluate if it is time to stay, or time to move forward with newfound confidence elsewhere.
