Career flopping: Everyone messes up their career just a bit

You’re allowed to mess up your career – say it with me now.

There’s been so much job jumping with the great resignation that I suspect many people have left for roles that weren’t right. Decisions are made in haste, driven by money, driven by an opportunity that the grass could be greener. It’s made me think about career flopping.

Career flops are passages of your career that are particularly uncomfortable – they are survivable but frustrating. It’s a flop of a time. It sucks. Your reality doesn’t match your expectations. You oscillate between hopeless, angry, melancholy, and resentful… and at the end of the day, you go home, flop on your bed and hope tomorrow is better.

Here are some floppy moments:

• You’ve been sold the dream in the interview, and in week two, you discover you hate it – it’s called job washing, apparently. 
•  You’ve snapped in a team meeting and made your boss angry – dire consequences if your boss doesn’t practice gentle managing. 
•  You’ve left consecutive jobs after three months because they weren’t right and made you miserable.
•  You’ve stayed awake at night wondering how you’ll explain the aforementioned to a judgemental line manager who believes that changing jobs is a sign of weakness.
•  You’ve stayed in a role too long, become bitter and twisted, and don’t have the motivation to leave.
•  You’ve been marked as underperforming in a performance review.
•  You’ve been asked to participate in a formal investigation, and you’re fearful of the impact on your reputation.
•  You’ve received a warning for something you disagreed with and felt powerless in the process.
•  You’ve asked for more money and were declined for no good reason.
•  You’re fired … not made redundant, actually fired. 

I’ve dealt with a couple of the above; I’ve also helped my friends and colleagues through them. Sucks man.
I wish I had some magic advice to improve it, but I don’t. When you’re in a flop, it demands to be felt. I know there is something to learn from the flop, like it or not. The flop is a time to go … what the heck! How the god damn did I get here, and what am I going to do now.

It’s a kick in the butt from the universe.

It’s a hard lesson.

But it would be best if you learned it.

Early in my career, I was told my probation might not be renewed because I wasn’t meeting expectations. I was facing the possibility of having NO JOB and very little savings. I went home and cried most evenings. The stress made me perform worse. I was like, NOPE, okay, I have to get out of this situation.

The story I would tell myself is that I was hopeless and pathetic – how could this happen. Reinforced by my then-manager telling me, “I wasn’t the person they met in the interview,” – which cut deep. It was a garbage situation.

I had to remind myself I was a person who wasn’t garbage. I wrote on my bathroom mirror, “you’re not garbage; it’s going to be okay”.

Sometimes you flop, and work sucks sometimes, but you’re not alone ♥️