How do you know when you've been in a position too long?

A mentee once asked me: "How do you know when you've been in a position too long?".

Great question! The good news is that there IS an answer for every person although the answer varies from person to person. Granted this is a tougher question to ask and act upon when the economy is poor and folks are just plain lucky to have a job. Even when ultimately the person stays in a position solely for economic reasons it's still important to know if their job has gotten "stale" and, if appropriate, take action to improve that situation. There are 3 core questions worth asking the mentee whose answers will point one way or another. Here we go:

1. "Do you have a lot more to learn in this position either from the work or from the folks you work with or from your manager?" This is a trickier question than it appears. A corresponding question could be "have you gotten comfortable with your job?". Generally "comfort" indicates there's little left to learn. The person is treading the same ground and doesn't need to think or engage as much as in the past when the work was novel and more exciting. As mentioned in an earlier post when our brains encounter new things one of the chemicals that is produced is dopamine which gives us a "good" feeling. It's interesting how we can feel uncomfortable and yet have a general good feeling at the same time. (Sounds contradictory but one word used to describe this could be "exhilarating".) This is when we are really learning a lot and hopefully we're on our way to 'mastery'.

2. "Do you see your current position as part of a 'career' or a 'calling'?" Or is it just a 'job' to you? This question will actually be the subject of a longer post in the future related to motivation. If the answer is "just a job", "pays the bills", "can't wait for the weekend" there's something to note there.

3. Finally and most importantly..."Are you overall happy?". What's the gut answer? If you have a mentee who likes to be more methodical than just answering from their gut let me share a good technique a career coach had me use when I needed to decide whether to accept a job offer. This technique also applies well when one wants to do a "check in" at their current job.

1. First make a list of the 10 important attributes you need or would really like in a job. For ex. autonomy, work life balance, lots of responsibility, good salary, flexible work hours, learning new things, etc. etc.
2. Rate each of these from 1 to 10 with '10' being a perfect match of what you want and your current experience of this attribute in your job.
3. If you have rated 6 of your 10 attributes a '6' or higher then you are probably in a good place for the time being given what you want and need from your role. (If you are considering a new opportunity then if you have rated 6 of your 10 attributes a '6' or higher of what you'd expect from this new opportunity then you should seriously consider accepting that offer!)

If the mentee considers the 3 questions above and finds their answers are all "no" all across the board then an action to effect some kind of change is probably in order. Again, one should act prudently in these economic times. Luckily this "change" need not necessarily be a new position or a career change.

I'm a firm believer in an empowered employee who can and should, with their leadership's guidance and support, redefine their jobs to make it more valuable to the company as well as to themselves. Constructive, thoughtful pro-activity can bring dividends to an individual and a team. I would ask the mentee who needs to stay in their 'stale' position what they like most about their current role and have them consider how they could extend that aspect. Perhaps the mentee can start teaching others how to do what they do well which will extend the mentee's influence and visibility inside and outside of their team (good for getting promoted! See how do I get promoted?). Perhaps the mentee can find a more junior person on their team who is willing and eager to learn new things themselves and delegate to that junior member some of their less interesting work. This should free up the mentee's time to explore and take on something different and more complex. These are just a couple of ideas on how one can make their current work more fulfilling. There are many more.

Hopefully these provide you some guidelines and actions you can share with your mentee that asks the "have I been in my job too long?" question. If you have additional ideas or thoughts please share!