Written by: Gina Zeolla, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Covid has put flames on an already extremely delicate topic, the great walkout! So why are employees quitting their jobs in their droves?!
Reason 1: Lack of job satisfaction due to corporates treating them like a cog in a not so well oiled corporate machine.
Reason 2: Bureaucracy stopping you from being able to succeed.
Reason 3: Pay not keeping up with the cost of living and inflation.
You can’t do that, was the message that kept ringing in my ears from an early age! I was brought up with the mentality I needed to get good grades at school, go to university, get a good corporate job, work my way up in said corporate job, buy a house, create family in said house, retire and then that was considered success, something that I followed for many years of my life and career.
I have an insatiable love for rock and roll music so would block out the world as I made that excruciating painful trip on the London Underground like a zombie everyday to my place of work. Rock and roll music became my only happy place, I couldn't understand why though! I had done everything my family and friends had told me to do!
I kept questioning why I was so unhappy, and kept asking myself the question “is this what success is supposed to look and feel like?!” Have you ever felt this way? Like there is something missing, but you can't quite put your finger on what it is…well that was me…
I used to go into my place of work everyday dragging my heels, thinking what kind of shit storm am i going to be walking into today! This modus operandi had become my habitual system, I was literally shouting out to the universe everyday subconsciously “give me more shit! I want more shit!” So that's what I got!
What do I mean by this? Well you see, your brain doesn’t actually know the difference between the “real world” and the thoughts inside your head, your brain processes both the same, and gives you the feelings and thoughts of both physically as well. So the stories I kept telling myself in my head about “what shit storm am I going to walk into today” manifested itself in the real world as it’s what I was feeling and expecting to happen!
I hated hierarchy in the corporate world, because they lacked understanding about human potential and culture. I felt like I was just a cog in a not so well oiled corporate machine!
I am a rebel at heart, but a rebel that likes to seek justice by breaking down boundaries. As a result of me seeking justice, I got the opportunity to discuss culture with the Head of Employee Engagement and had an in depth conversation around my expertise in employee engagement and wellbeing. I wanted to challenge the status quo and I really felt that I had succeeded. I truly felt that I had broken down the barriers that were hindering employee engagement. BANG!! That door was slammed shut by hierarchy!
This was the final straw…. I abandoned the job, and so did the head of employee engagement shortly after. It was at this pivotal point in my career that I decided I needed to break down my own barriers, and be in control, instead of constantly trying to break down the barriers of hierarchy!
So why is corporate flawed and how can we overcome any barriers we face in the corporate to make us feel fulfilled?
This article isn’t opposing the corporate, but this article is playing devil's advocate to help you understand if you are making the best decisions in your professional life for your own well-being.
Like I said, I thought the corporate way of life was the ultimate way to be successful. But is it really?
With Covid and being furloughed, and with some European countries already in lockdown again, are we starting to wake up to the fact that we don’t need the corporate to make us feel fulfilled?!
From the storm of covid, could we be realizing that we can find more purpose and meaning in our lives without the corporate, while still being able to make ends meet?
Does your company understand employee behaviors and do they truly understand culture?
We are cookie cutter human beings in the corporate world. Does a corporate help us to become our true authentic selves or just a clone of what society wants?
A record 4.4 million employees left their jobs this year. People are seeking a change, in what some economists have dubbed the ‘Great Resignation’. For some workers, the pandemic precipitated a shift in priorities, encouraging them to pursue a ‘dream job’, or transition to being a stay-at-home parent. But for many, many others, the decision to leave came as a result of the way their employer treated them during the pandemic.
Are employees beginning to understand what I had been thinking previously about the corporate?
Remember the saying, never look back, this is what I decided to do. There were moments because of my wiring that I thought “Arrrghh , what have I done?'' Yet with the fiery rebel, that I guess rock n roll music ingrained in me, I began to pave a new way which enabled me to find my true authentic self and purpose, I was not being carved by the corporate and I focused on the solutions and not the problems. I realized that money does not solely have to come from the corporate job.
As the famous Bob Proctor and the billionaire Warren Buffett said, multiple sources of income are what will generate your wealth. A corporation will not generate wealth and there are other ways that you can generate cash flow apart from your 9-5. Do you really feel the corporation offers you the wealth that you desire or want for your future legacies?
“Never put your eggs into one basket” Warren Buffett.
“ The Average Millionaire has seven streams of income” Bob Proctor
So instead of thinking of covid as a problem, start thinking of covid as a solution to an even bigger problem, the lack of fulfillment and enlightenment of employees in the corporate world. Why are we still allowing fear mongering to dictate that our corporate job is the only way to earn money and belittle ourselves into playing small?
Does the corporate make us lose our authentic selves?
I know for a fact that I lost myself in the corporate. I became obsessed with how I could make the corporates make more money, instead of how I could make more money for myself!
I lost my identity because my identity became the culture of the corporate. As I walked into the sunset away from the corporate job, I felt like a rebel with a cause, a cause to serve others and to help them become fulfilled, to find fulfillment, to find their authentic selves and to do this creatively.
For as long as I can remember, I've always loved helping people, and have been fascinated by the topic of human potential. I would always question why some people thrive and other people struggle?
I‘m also passionate about a multitude of seemingly unconnected things; rock music, films, my favourite films being Fight Club and The Matrix. I thought that my unusual combination of skills and interests was a liability to starting a business, but in fact it turned out to be the reason to start this business, and actually help people to become fulfilled while allowing me to be my authentic self!
“We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope we get to death without being badly bruised or we can live a full, complete life achieving our goals and realizing our wildest dreams.” Bob Proctor
Join me on my breakfree Challenge starting on the 31st January 2022, where we will be uncovering the ways to see how the corporate is not the only way. If you are even a little bit curious, then I suggest you come and have a look. If you don’t try you will never know. You don’t know what you don’t know until you know. - Socrates
As a Brainz reader use code BRAINZVIP for VIP access to her breakfree challenge starting on the 31st January 2022. Where you will have everything you need to safely, securely, reliably and predictably have a 100% passive recession and pandemic proof income stream you LOVE and will have a crystal clear plan on EXACTLY what to do next to feel fully fulfilled in 2022 and beyond. https://bit.ly/breakfree-challenge
Gina Zeolla, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Gina Zeolla is the go to expert in Fulfillment and Enlightenment Coaching For Executives & Employees. Gina quit her 9 to 5 after feeling unfulfilled in her corporate role, because of hierarchy, bureaucracy and her own self limiting beliefs stunting her growth. She has now gone on to dedicate her life to helping people find and experience financial and spiritual enlightenment through the power of music, humor, empowerment and teaching through the heart. She has gone on to create strategies to dramatically change how people feel about themselves both internally and externally, releasing their inner child while morphing their flaws and imperfections into their unique abilities and superpowers. Gina teaches people how to thrive financially and spiritually in an uncertain and unapologetic world by bringing their whole authentic self to the table and owning who and what they are with no apologies. Gina is currently writing her book, Fulfillment In An Unapologetic World, and due to release her course Evolution 2.0 in early 2022.
