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Pigeon holed at work?

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Disinterested

 

Call it ‘pigeon holed’ or being ‘put in a box’, it can be very annoying and restrictive. This is even more the case if you fell into your career by accident/chance, which many people do, and your job just isn’t ‘you’.

Why does pigeon holing happen?

Sometimes it suits your company to keep you in a certain role or just doing particular tasks. It may be that you are really good at what you do, but it doesn’t make you feel fulfilled.

I am a natural organiser for example, but it doesn’t give me a ‘buzz’. HR can think of people as job descriptions, roles and headcount rather than people with unique talent to be utilized in different ways.

It may be that your boss doesn’t like certain tasks, so it suits them to get you to do these, so they just do the bits they enjoy. Because they are ‘the boss’, they can.

Recruitment agents can be very good at pigeon holing candidates, after all it suits them to place candidates in the ‘holes’ that their clients are looking for because that is when they get paid. I have found many times with clients changing career direction, they find recruitment agencies just don’t get it.

A career coach like myself helps clients to reposition themselves and become what they want to be, not what they have been.

I hate being pigeon holed. Variety and newness are two of my values. I can’t think of anything worse than doing the same thing over and over again for the rest of my working life. It suits some people, to them it’s familiar and comfortable, but not me.

If you are feeling trapped in a pigeon hole, what do you do? Here are some tips

– Restructure your CV
– Choose a portfolio career
– Do volunteering to broaden your skills and experience
– Move employers
– Get a career coach
– Identify what perceptions people have of you, who your stakeholders are and create a communication plan to change them
– Discuss job redesign with your boss
– Learn a new skill/study for a qualification

What tips would you add?

It can be very hard to change perceptions of yourself with your existing company – especially if you were a placement student and you join the same company as an employee after you graduate.

Moving companies can make all the difference but sometimes a career change is the only way to find the right hole (or holes) for you.

Are you feeling put in a pigeon hole at work? Maybe you are in the wrong career, it’s just you have never admitted it to yourself or thought it was too late to do anything about it. It isn’t. Get in touch.

For more insights and tips, follow us on Twitter @talentliberator

The Beauty Of Deadlines

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The 6 week timeframe to sort out the debt crisis has got me thinking about deadlines. They can be a pain but they are also very useful to focus the mind.  Work deadlines under pressure imposed by someone else can get you enraged, renewal deadlines like car insurance or the end of a fixed mortgage force you to think about it/explore other options rather than ignore or forget about the issue. Forced deadlines like redundancy or early retirement give you short or long timescales to get your act together and plan.

Without deadlines procrastination can be king and “I didn’t get around to it” Queen.

For many people being made redundant, while not nice, can be a push to do something different rather than drift/cruise at work. I have found that people who hate their career can take years, even decades to take action. That is a lot of time being fed up of work and having a sinking feeling on Monday mornings. The reason? No deadline and it feeling like a huge overwhelming decision. 

I find that the tipping point to people finally deciding to come to me about career change is often a birth, death, birthday or sometimes the straw that broke the camel’s back – e.g. a colleague getting a promotion or the umpteenth time they have worked late and their boss taken the credit.

What deadline could you set for yourself in 6 weeks time to achieve something important but not urgent?  E mail me and I will hold you accountable – click on the link. 

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/careercoaching/what-next/

 

 

 

 

 

Do You Love Your Job?

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You do? You’re kidding right? Oh you’re the one.

You see it’s a bit like relationships – there are lots of ‘all right ish’ ones but ones that are brilliant are as rare as a nesting osprey.

If you are a typical employee, if you have a job, you will be hanging onto to it for dear life like an aging footballer with a supermodel girlfriend.

 If you are fed up to the back teeth of your job, your boss or your employer, what can you do except grin and bear it? The behaviour of people who don’t like something but don’t know what to do about it easy to spot:

  1. You talk more behind your boss’ back than to their face
  2. You wake up on a Monday morning with lead weights in your shoes rather than a spring in your step
  3. Weekends and holidays feel like an oasis and you cling to them like a drowning man
  4. You get ill a lot because your body is being obliging to get you out of there
  5. You drink too much alcohol, shop to excess, eat comfort foot to excess and do drugs to distract yourself, or maybe all of them
  6. Soap opera storyline feel positively cheery compared to your lot

So what’s the alternative? Here are 3 options:

1)     Bump off your boss and steal their job

2)     Resign with no job to go to

3)     Download the Energise free report ‘Pain free career change’ as the first step to keep sane http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/

From Fixed Grin To Wry Smile?

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Is your face aching from that fixed grin? That expression that says ‘I am happy to have a job, but I am sick of doing 3 jobs, having no pay rise, little feedback or praise and I would like to stuff it where the sun don’t shine?’

If so, smiling at these work signs will change your facial expression and give those face muscles a workout. Enjoy! 

“If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t people happy?”

“I don’t look busy because I did it right first time.”

“Work is like taking a sledge across the Arctic. Only the lead dog has a pleasant view”

“We believe in give and take here. I give my time and effort. They take my freedom and dignity.”

“Who says that nothing is impossible? There are people here who do it every day.”

“If at first you don’t succeed, delegate the job to someone else.”

“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

If you designed your own work sign, what would be the caption? Do share.

Have you downloaded your free ‘Pain free career change report’ yet?

Click on this link to download it and look busy: http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/

Have a laugh at our video on YouTube too – more free tips for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b8CFaOq6GY

Want To Bump Off Your Boss?

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Tempting? Many people are having to re-apply for their own job in the public sector. If you were to apply for your own job now, would you, or would you rather have your boss’ job? It might feel like a bit of a trick question, as most people are doing more than one job now for the same money. This has the advantages of more variety to keep you interested but more pressure and stress! 

I find that people often stay in a job for longer than is good for their own growth. With job uncertainty about, it seems a good thing to do, but it’s a bit like wearing a suit that no longer fits with the arms and trousers too short for your body. The job that was right for you 3 years ago is unlikely to be right for you now, because we are changing and growing all the time. You could bump off your boss as they are probably sitting pretty too, but the prisons are a bit overcrowded. Could help with the rising cost of living.

If you could create your ideal job for you now, what would it be? Tip – write a job description for your perfect role and compare it with your current one.  Could be an insightful exercise.  Our free report might help you to take a step back too – click on the link to download your free copy: http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/

Ever Encounter ‘Sod’s Law?’

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Do you ever encounter ‘sod’s law?’ You work really late to perfect a presentation and then it’s cancelled. You don’t take a great job at another company because you have your eye on your retiring boss’ position and then they give their job to someone else.  

Sod’s law is about things not going according to plan. But then who said there was a plan in the first place? 

Sod’s law is annoying but inevitable, the knocks that make the highs high. How can sod’s law be prevented? It probably can’t, but you can choose your attitude to it and be philosophical. If ever a prospect or client meeting is cancelled, rather than getting wound up, I feel glad of the unexpected spare time. What’s your biggest experience of ‘sod’s law’ and looking back, was it really such a sod?

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Human capital, Smart living and working , Self promotion, Career strategies