I entered the workforce at 21, right after defending my bachelor’s diploma. Being a typical representative of Gen Z, I had particular expectations about my future job — interesting, compelling, brand-new tasks on a daily basis, constant professional growth and annual promotions, and (my favorite!) being a valuable part of a company making a significant contribution into its great mission. My romanticized ideas of making a living were inspired by numerous motivational TED talks (where eloquent and passionate people share fascinating accomplishments in their career), glittering TV-series and movies about White Collars (where a hard-working and dedicated character paves brilliant career path in 1,5–2 hours), and a strong belief that the perfect job exists!
After 3,5 years of working experience, my image of having a job is much more down-to-earth due to numerous valuable lessons, 3 the most insightful of which I am going to share in this article.
A bigger company is NOT NECESSARILY a better company
In the young and naïve minds of Gen Z, companies with big names are associated with the perfect processes, the high culture of the relationship between workers, thoroughly designed plans for professional development, and, of course, material perks. Besides, very few things can flatter vanity as much as mentioning Google or Amazon as your workplace in a conversation with friends or at the family table.
Yes, something indeed makes big, famous companies big and famous. They may have the brightest people in a field, a prosperous niche to drive business in, brilliant CEO with a winning strategy and proper planning. But no — the size and sound of a company do not correlate with how its employees are treasured. When I say “treasured”, I mean not only the reimbursement aspect but such things as empathy, listening to people’s needs, recognizing and encouraging their initiatives.
I worked at a prosperous international outsource company with millions of profits, where the in-house staff didn’t have basic medical insurance. And then I worked at a small local startup with ups and downs alternating every week, where all employees were not only provided with the extended insurance policy but financially supported when starting a family, buying a house, or taking care of a sick family member.
What I realized is that what really determines the attitude of a company towards its employees is Maturity. When the C-level admits that employees are not an asset of a company but the company itself, when the mission and vision of a company are about and for people, when there are human-oriented company values — these are what make difference and distinguish great places to work. We will dig deeper into characteristics of a mature company in the next articles, but for now let’s restrict ourselves with a fact that they prioritize people as much as or even more than beating competitors and making a fortune.
Sunk-year trap
At some point in life, everyone gets to the Sunk-cost trap. The damage scale ranges from a few hundred spent on a beautiful wear-once cocktail dress to millions deposited into a project that turned out a failure. The more money is spent the stronger connection we feel to whatsoever it is spent on. So, it’s too difficult to get rid of this whatsoever, even if its ineffectiveness and uselessness are perfectly clear. People tend to keep depositing into the failure hoping that the situation will change, when in fact, it’s getting only worse absorbing more money like a black hole.
Not so long ago, a friend of mine complained about his crumbling relationship that he didn’t break up only because of all the finances he invested into it (gifts, flowers, taxi, etc.). He was so greedy and irritated that his investments didn’t work out, but a perspective of leaving the relationship just led to extreme outrage. “I won’t be sleeping at night knowing that three-quarters of my budget for the recent 1,5 years walk arm in arm with somebody else.” Sounds romantic, doesn’t it!
The Sunk-year trap is not so common, but no less painful. Along with marriage and studying at university, the workplace is a typical area to be caught. The trap hits when you feel burned out without any particular reason. A long vacation, sabbatical, or increase in salary cannot bring you back to the normal state, when you deliver at a high level, dedicating the full of your abilities to what you do. Invigoration after completing a complicated project? Gone! Striving to perfect KPIs? Not there! Teeny tiny interest to investigate and learn something new in the field? Not a dime! Instead, a permanent state of depression diluted with simple math of counting minutes till the end of yet another working day and flavored with self-loathing for not having enough determination to change something.
Behind the lack of determination is a fear of losing all those priceless years spent to build a career. “So much effort, so many overtimes just to throw away and start from scratch? No, it’s irrational! I do what I am successful in. I have a decent salary, reputation, and authority, which I deserved after years of hard work. Why would I exchange it for something new just because I am passionate about it?“ The answer is because with the attitude to work you developed at this point, with no motivation to progress in the current occupation, you will inevitably lose all those money, respect, and influence you think you have now. The stronger the stick to the sunk years is, the more irritation and dissatisfaction it brings to life pulling a stickler back in career development and personal growth.
The tip here is to think about such spent years as a source of experience and valuable lessons that was needed to prepare you for something huge. Don’t concentrate on what you are losing — focus on what you are gaining: a chance to live an exciting and fulfilling life, realize a diverse spectrum of your talents, discover new horizons of this amazing and surprising life.
Your job won’t bring you anything but what you deposit to it
This well-known truth took me a while to resonate. I found the key to understanding this simple fact when I realized that, in the relationship worker-job, the active part is the worker. The job is an inanimate, abstract, depending-on-context entity that is not able to perform any action. Let alone such sublime ones as bringing joy, fulfilling, or giving a purpose to wake up in the morning. Despite all poetic promises an opening (in the face of a recruiter) lists, including interesting tasks, constant learning, and professional growth, the job itself cannot deliver them.
What makes a task interesting is the attitude and creative approach of a person responsible for it; what enables constant learning is the desire to absorb new information and expert knowledge; what ensures professional growth is the initiative and discipline of a professional. On contrary, with indifference and passivity, any task will seem boring; with laziness and “I-know-everything” state of mind learning is impossible; with seeds of disorganization and nonchalance, there is no chance to grow professionally.
It is not a title that brings value to a man, it is a man that brings value to the title. It is our shoulders that carry responsibility for creating a fruitful working environment to get joy from work. It is a fair truth not mentioned in vacancy descriptions and unvoiced during interviews, but so important to realize especially for Gen Z with high expectations from the workplace.
Taking into account my humble working experience, which counts only 3,5 years and 2 companies, I hardly can be referenced as an expert or trustworthy source of wisdom. But what I know for sure is that had I taught these lessons before starting the career path, it would have saved me from many mistakes and disappointments on the way.
