How to Avoid Career FOMO During the Great Resignation
Kent R.
Career FOMO is real. The great resignation – or, more correctly, great reshuffling – is creating a lot of movement in the world of work. And it’s making people who are otherwise satisfied with their jobs feel like they are missing out.
On this episode of the Stop Hating Mondays Podcast, we’re talking about how to stay grounded during this period of upheaval and what the great resignation means for happy employees.
TRANSCRIPT
(Transcripts are auto-generated and may contain minor errors)
Caanan
Career FOMO is real.
The great resignation is creating a lot of movement in the world of work and it's making people who are otherwise satisfied with their jobs feel like they're missing out. So on this episode of the Stop Hating Mondays Podcast, we're talking about how to stay grounded during this period of upheaval, and what the great resignation means for happy employees.
Caanan
OK, we got this question from Mario. He said “I feel like this hot job market is giving me FOMO. Everyone seems really eager to move on to something else, but I actually like my job. Am I stupid to not be putting myself out there?”
Oh man, I think a lot of people are asking that.
Kent
Yeah, three cheers for people who like their job. I mean you have to be asking yourself this serious question because, although your career is just one of your many roles, it is a role and it's a very important role.
Now is a good time to consider movement if it's in your wheelhouse, but if you are happy – if you've recently moved or gotten promoted or you're focusing more on other roles that make up you – absolutely don't look at yourself as being stupid [if you aren’t considering a career shift].
And it's funny…
We've worked with a lot of people who have this feeling, but when you stop and you do one of our famous health checks, you know – where you're kind of in taking what's going on. What are you thinking? What's the problem? – There's nothing that would indicate that this person should be looking for a different job. So like everything else in society right now – again with social media and the news – there's these waves and it's like, “oh, I need to jump on that wave.” Wait a minute.
Caanan
Right?
Why do we need to jump on that wave?
Kent
Yes, as I hope Mario has, this is about getting grounded.
Knowing yourself and an example like this is so rich, because if you can refrain from something that everybody else is jumping on right – like that dream trend of the moment or the dream trip or whatever – and step back and go “wait a minute. That's not my dream moment, my dream car, my dream house, my dream trip! This whatever, this is my dream whatever.” Being able to see what's happening in society, but to ask yourself, “wait a minute, does this impact me? Do I want it to impact me? Where am I at with my career?” is a very huge thing to do because in any role in your life, movement or change simply for the sake of change without – what we say a lot – without awareness and purpose is ridiculous.
There's too much happening in the world right now with all your different roles. You don't need to be expending mindless energy working on things that you don't really want. And it's a very important part of our Stop Hating Mondays – go back to that podcast from our inaugural season – we kind of talk about the whole premise of who we are, and what we do, and how we help people. And a big part of that, and a big part of the work we do with all our clients, is talking about:
What are your individual strengths?
What are your individual values?
What makes up the many roles you have in life?
What are you working on right now?
Where are you excelling?
All of that deep examination leads to you having a better understanding of your passion – those things that make up the different facets of you who you are and what you're doing. Having that understanding as it relates to this question, Mario poses wil make this great resignation – this moment in time – just another event that's happening.
Some events are good, some are bad. Through it all, you know who you are.
If you have a grip on your strengths and values and the roles you play and your passion, and you know if you need to plug into a particular movement or not.
Caanan
Well, and I hate to get too micro here because what you're just sharing is so excellent high level. But in regard to the great resignation, we're in a time where things are getting… the environment is getting very wonky.
The job market is still hot, but as you said in an earlier episode, there are also signs – because of inflation and the looming recession, thank you – that things are getting a little wonky in the world of work. And we just had an experience with a client who was happy in their role, jumped on the great resignation wave, moved to a brand new company in a very exciting position and was just laid off because they were the least senior person on their team. And it is devastating to this person.
Kent
Oh yeah.
Caanan
So I'm not suggesting that people not take action in this job market. If they really feel like it's time to move on or they want to, you know, throw their name out there. But if you're happy in your role, don't destabilize your life in this crazy environment.
Kent
Because there's all kinds of potential outcomes, not all of them are positive.
Caanan
OK, so we talked about what companies are doing to retain people during the great resignation. What are some of the ways people who are happy in their roles can benefit from that?
Kent
Yeah, we've talked about this in a in a prior episode.
People can benefit because hopefully they're getting by now an appropriate pay raise because these companies know that they need to retain the talent that they want to retain. Hopefully they're finding opportunities for promotions.
We talked about that the fact that a lot of really cool promotions are happening. And even more than that, a lot of kind of dream promotions into niche roles are happening.
So people who are happy can benefit because they can get this bit of extra income. Kind of go deeper into a role that they like. There's a lot for people who don't want to completely disorder their life in search of a job jump or a company jump – people who are OK with where they are but still want to benefit from the good environment we have right now.
Caanan
Last question. What is one thing that an employee can do to feel like they're making movement in their career without changing roles?
Kent
Yeah, this this is a good question for any time of the year. Any kind of change, good or bad.
Whenever a big movement is happening and you're sitting it out, or really anything, you should always be looking at ways to better understand yourself, not to mention, of course, take the opportunity to do maybe some job enrichment activities or to increase your education – take advantage of any education reimbursement and further your skills, Modernize your skills.
So while all this is happening externally –people jumping jobs and jumping companies – you're focused on making yourself a better person in the job you're in or preparing yourself for your next move.
But don't forget about just good old looking at yourself. Better understanding, as I said, your own strengths, your own values, your passion, the different roles you play. Any kind of investment like that is worth it.
And if you need help with that, we can help you with it.
