Written by: Neptali J. Martinez, 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.
The workplace upheaval in recent times seems to have brought this question front and center: what is our purpose at work?
We could attribute the recent pandemic and the emerging work-from-home (WFH) model as a significant reason for many employees to feel disconnected, disappointed, and disoriented in the work environment.
Perhaps the latest round of layoffs by big name companies is adding to this confusion. Maybe the changes at a global scale we see reported on social media is also causing us to pause. Or it could even be our own internal revolution/evolution that is impacting us as individuals.
Regardless of the reason, the news is filled with indications that employees are making drastic changes when it comes to their career and professional life. The big resignation reported on the news, the different expectations from the younger generations, the tidal wave of information at our fingertips, all seem to be challenging our views of what is our purpose at work.
Many people may say that the reason they go to work is money. Others may say that it is the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile. And I’m sure there are other reasons that can be identify as a good “reason” to go to work.
But the recent disruptions in the workplace seem to be challenging whatever “fundamental reason” that exited, which made us, as individuals, “want” to get up in the morning and, for whatever reason, head to the workplace.
So, what happens when one day, as far as your job or career is concerned, you, as an individual, find yourself a changed person. Someone who suddenly doesn’t find satisfaction anymore in the type of work you’ve been doing up to now. You don’t see value any longer in the type of work you do. You cannot see yourself doing the same commute one more day. You simply don’t want to continue doing the same daily routine at the office.
One of my clients shared with me how he became aware that he did not want to keep on doing what he was doing anymore. He was an experienced IT manager in charge of a group of professionals, running the IT department for his company. One day he received a letter from. the CEO informing him that he was the recipient of a Longer Service Employee Award celebrating his 20 years at the company.
He told me that such letter hit him like a ton of bricks. He could not fathom having spent 20 years of his life at that company doing IT work. For a few days he could not function properly because it was difficult for him to accept that unless he did something drastic to change, he most likely will be spending another 20 years on the same situation at work!
There was nothing wrong with his job, or the type of work he did, or the people he worked with. As he thought about it, his time at that company had been uneventful. His career had been a smooth ride. He worked hard, kept up with the advances in technology, and had climbed the career ladder in a way that satisfied him.
So, what was the problem? Why did he feel so deflated? What was causing such disconnect suddenly? Withing the purview of the coaching services I provided for him, we concentrated on identifying what would make him happy going forward (career-wise), turning that into a goal, and eventually coming up with a new career to his liking.
But finding the “why” of his drastic change simply stayed up in the air without an acceptable reason because he was not sure why he saw himself different upon receipt of his 20-year Longer Service Employee Award, to the point of not wanting to continue in his current career.
And this specific client is not the only one I’ve seen to hit a brick wall in their careers. I’ve helped others who also found themselves tired of what they were doing and wanted to do something else. So, this situation is not unique. I’m using this client’s case as an example because of how sudden the change was for him.
Donavyn Coffey, in her article: Does the human body replaces itself every 7 years? Perhaps offers some inkling as to why people change.
“There are trillions of cells in your body, but the cells that you have today are not all the same you had yesterday. Overt time, cells age and become damaged, so your body’s cells are constantly replicating, creating their own replacements. This constant cellular activity has sparked a popular idea: Every seven years or so, your cells have been so productive that your body has replaced every part of itself — from your eyelashes to your esophagus. In other words, after about seven years of cellular replication, you’re an entirely new collection of cells, inside and out.”
Was this why my client saw himself so different suddenly? Perhaps, but I don’t know. I’m not an expert in that field. Besides, he hired me to help him find a new career, not to find out the “why” of his drastic change.
But the question remained with me, so I kept looking into this 7-year cycle. While Coffey’s article discusses the internal 7-year cycle of the body cells, from an external point of view, let’s consider the following: A baby is born and for about 6 to 7 years is fully dependent. From 7 to 14, that child becomes a teenager. From 14 to 21, that teenager becomes an adult. From 21 to 28, that young person matures, becomes fully independent, and can contribute to society. From 28 to 35, their career should be cemented, and their success should be evident. From 35 to 42, the individual should have a significant role, in social as well as in business circles. We could imagine the next cycles and the popular expectations we could attach to each, as the individual goes from 42 to 49, 49 to 56, 56 to 63, etc.
My client was 39 years old. Did he suddenly realized that he had not yet achieved “a significant role” in life? Was he entering a midlife crisis? Did a new batch of cells in his body tip the balance into a new way for him to see things? It couldn’t have been just the 20-years-of-service letter, although that could have been the spark that ignited his “change.”
I never learned the answer to that question but, while I was not able to answer why my client changed suddenly, I was able to help him move past that interruption in his career.
Typically, situations like these are labeled as “problems,” “dilemmas,” or “complications.”
However, based on the outcomes from coaching engagements with my clients, such situations become “opportunities,” “redirections,” and “transformations.”
Not that such positive views are present at the beginning of coaching engagements. Typically, we begin talking about the “problem,” the “dilemma,” the “complication.” But then, slowly but surely, the negatives become positives, as the client reviews their current situation, explores new options, makes determinations, and develops new objectives and goals.
New objectives and goals typically generate new energy, new opportunities, and new challenges in my clients. In these cases, “challenges” have a positive connotation. These are not the challenges that we face when change comes from an external source. A self-imposed challenge tends to be welcome, it tends to feed our spirit, and I’ve seen how it generates passion and grit in my clients.
This client turned his encounter with that brick wall into an opportunity to reevaluate his life and his career. He used the pause the brick wall offered him to identify and select a new profession. He transitioned from his IT career to become a Human Resources professional. As he told me a couple of years after the coaching ended, he switched from “talking to computers to talking to human beings.”
So, whether it’s our cells splitting cyclically, a midlife crisis, the seven-year itch, or any other type of influence that causes us to change who we are, and leaving it to the appropriate experts to find out the “why” people change, I continue to work with professionals that, finding out that they have changed, realizing they need a new direction in their careers, wanting to do something else, decide to start over, and look for a new way to obtain satisfaction from what they do at work.
I’ve written a book titled, CoachAbility: Are you in the state or condition to be coached? The reason of the capital “A” in the tile is because I have found that each one of my clients, unbeknownst to them, held “Abilities” that allowed them to change, grow, and succeed in new careers and in new directions. In my book you will find many examples of how professionals unearthed those hidden “Abilities” during coaching, which helped them find new goals, new directions, and new purpose at work.
Follow me on LinkedIn for more info!
Neptali J. Martinez, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Neptali Martinez is founder and principal at NJM Career/Leadership Coaching, which provides career and executive coaching for professionals in middle and upper management levels, business owners, and entrepreneurs in diverse areas such as Information Technology, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, and other business organizations. As an author, Neptali has published more than a dozen articles in a trade magazine, and has published his first book, CoachAbility: Are You in a State or Condition to be Coached?
