Is Your Career Sustainable? How to Recognize the Challenges and Value of Doing the Work

After a corporate career stint, being an entrepreneur, and meeting a nuclear physicist, I finally saw the big picture

When the lumber industry harvests a tree, a new seedling is planted.

When home builders plan a new subdivision, their designs incorporate energy-saving features, with the eventual goal of a net-zero impact to the grid.

More states are eliminating plastic bags to reduce the long-term impact on the environment.

In an ever-changing, impermanent world, our focus is now on maintaining our scarce and dwindling resources. So we reuse, recycle, allocate, and ration — enacting policies and restrictions to conserve our limited reserves.

This is a far cry from the mindset of the disposable, throw-away culture of the eighties when consumer-oriented companies operated with a mindset of programmed failure and designed half-life.

This new awareness — the need to protect, conserve, and sustain our limited resources — highlights the necessity to plan for the future.

Should our careers be any different?

Integrating the idea of sustainability into career planning can be a challenge.

A 2018 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the average worker will change jobs — and even industries — an average of twelve times during their lifetime.

And yet, regardless of the number of times we change our employment, there is the underlying, fundamental premise that we’re boosting our career trajectory, that our need to leave one employer for another is motivated by the hope and promise of something better — improved working conditions, more money, or greater opportunity for advancement.

Job sustainability is about continuity.

It’s about taking the experience gained from your previous job — especially people and business skills — and moving it forward.

And while the goal is to increase your value with each move, it only happens when you make good decisions along the way.

What are the components of a sustainable job?

They originate from two separate sources.

The first is internal — a subjective and personal assessment of how well-matched you are to your work.

The second comes from an objective evaluation of the market, the industry, and the financial stability of the company you work for.

Here are the six most frequently mentioned internal characteristics of a positive job choice:

1. Your job provides you with a sense of doing something important — something that makes a difference.

Do you consider your job important? Or do you think of it as procedural, boring, or a policy-driven waste of time?

Ideally, your job provides you with work that is interesting and engaging. There’s nothing worse than sitting at your desk and “clock-watching” — counting down the remaining minutes until you can go home.

That was my situation when I worked at Mountain Bell (yep, the old phone company), where every day, at exactly 4:50 pm, the entire engineering staff cleaned off their desks, then spent the last ten minutes of the day staring at the clock as it clicked off those final, remaining minutes.

Granted, some employees find themselves “captives of time” by default. It’s company policy, or an unbreakable ritual, or part of the industry’s culture. It’s up to you to decide if working under the discipline of the clock is acceptable.

2. You understand the “big picture” value of your work.

Under-appreciating your job is an easy trap to fall into.

The infrequent high points of a corporate career — receiving a bonus, a performance award, or a promotion — seldom offset the repetition of the daily work. The endless reports, team meetings, and countless hours on the phone can, over time, become monotonous and boring.

The key is to realize your day-to-day job activities may not necessarily reflect the actual function or result of your work.

Consider your job from the big picture.

Is there a trickle-down effect? How does it affect others? If they knew how important your work function really was, would they thank you for it?

For example, during a recent layover in the Denver airport, I met a young man on his way home to the little town of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Knowing the town’s history and reputation as a government brain trust, I asked him what kind of work he did.

At first, he was a bit reluctant. But after a few more minutes of friendly chatting, he revealed he was a nuclear physicist. His job? To estimate and project the destructive effects of a nuclear strike, based on real-time global events.

Any change in a political or military situation, anywhere in the world, required new “calculations.” His input determined when and where the use of nuclear weapons might be necessary and if so, the optimum size, time, and the exact location of the detonation.

He did this for multiple scenarios every day.

“It’s all math and science,” he said. “But it’s more than just numbers and equations. It’s my job to convert destructive yield, collateral damage, and long-term genetic mutation into a realistic picture of human loss and suffering.”

He didn’t see his job in terms of its inherent number-crunching and computer modelling. Instead, he saw himself as a stop-gap — a protective link in the chain of command.

He was responsible for turning raw, objective data into graphic descriptions of death and destruction, hoping his conversion of static math equations into realistic terms might be the deterrent that changed someone’s mind.

3. Critical Question: What is the bottom-line function of your job?

The company you work for has a compelling future and a place for you in it.

As you look toward the future, your job should present a clear and viable path to professional and financial success.

This could be in the form of opportunities for promotion and advancement, to gain proprietary training and experience, or to profit from a clearly defined compensation program that pays you what you’re worth.

Having a clear view ahead is the first step in creating a professional path that is realistic, attainable, and allows you to measure your progress along the way.

4. Your job environment provides a productive and socially comfortable atmosphere.

Do others respect you for your contribution, your expertise, and the results you create?

The basic standards of respect and courtesy aren’t conventions we check at the door because the “work environment” provides a license for social abuse.

5. You have realistic expectations.

To leapfrog from an entry-level employee to vice-president in three years isn’t realistic — or probable.

Promotions and advancement come to those who are obviously capable and have proven themselves — through years of experience — that they are qualified to handle the responsibility.

6. You avoid the temptation of the entrepreneurial siren.

Feeling unappreciated or trapped in a work situation that’s unfulfilling or falls short of your expectations are ailments often associated with working for someone else.

Media hype typically takes it a step further, suggesting these kinds of complaints are exclusive to those working under the corporate umbrella — it comes with the territory.

However, don’t make the mistake of believing the symptoms of predictable repetition are experienced only by employees. In reality, they’re typical complaints expressed by all workers — regardless of who steers the ship.

I spent 14 years in a corporate career and the balance of my professional life as an entrepreneur.

Having been on both sides of the workforce, I want to give this to you straight. After stripping away the media hype and sugar-coating, here are the facts:

In an article by Georgia McIntyre on Fundera (updated January 31, 2020), fifty percent of small businesses fail after five years in business.

These numbers are a cruel reminder of the inescapable risk of being an entrepreneur. Start your own business, and there’s a damn good chance you’re going to fail. In fact, it’s a fifty-fifty proposition by year five.

Unfortunately, the first lesson many new entrepreneurs learn is that they’ve traded corporate boredom for financial stress and logistical overwhelm. And if they lack the resiliency to handle it, they typically find themselves wishing for the good old days back at XYZ Corporation.

A temporary break to scratch an entrepreneurial itch can be devastating to a corporate career and can result in a final job position that is substantially less rewarding than someone who stayed on a strategic career track.

With that in mind, here’s the question every budding entrepreneur needs to ask themselves . . .

Knowing that, after working and investing your capital in your own business for five-years, you face a fifty percent chance of failure, does it still make sense to give up your professional relationship with a large, financially stable and successful company?

If the entrepreneurial “bug” continues to gnaw at you, consider a side business.

This can take the form of a non-competitive consulting service, online sales of instructional material, photography services, writing, or the buying and selling of non-perishable goods through eBay or Etsy.

In all cases, your side gig should be unrelated to your main job, and there should never be any common customer overlap.

Above all, your involvement in outside, profit-generating activities must never be revealed to anyone associated with your employer. This includes the company’s customers, vendors, suppliers, distributors, and yes, even the UPS gal.

Your employer must never discover that control of your time, energy, and attention is not exclusively theirs.

Job sustainability also comes with challenges outside your control.

Change is constant, and the need for a specific job function or position is always subject to market trends, competition, and advances in technology.

In spite of your best efforts to maintain the sustainability of your job, you are always vulnerable to the effects of restructuring, downsizing, or layoffs.

Perennially evaluate the future viability of your job by using the following external metrics.

Determine the value — in dollars and cents — of your job function.

The company always does what’s best for the company. Period. End of story.

Most job functions are under constant scrutiny to determine if there’s a more effective, less expensive way to accomplish it.

No job is safe from outsourcing. Your only defence is to be constantly aware of other opportunities, making sure your first loyalty is always to yourself.

You’re especially vulnerable if your work falls into an area identified as most likely to be replaced by a third-party source.

For example, accounting, training, fleet management, IT (including web presence and inter-company computer systems and security), physical plant security, customer service, legal services — and in fact, just about anything that doesn’t require face-to-face time with customers — are job types most likely to be outsourced.

Never believe you or your job position is immune to the effects of restructuring, downsizing, or layoffs.

If your compensation is significantly more than what a younger, less experienced replacement would cost, you’re vulnerable.

Determine the long-term prognosis for your industry.

Remember when every mall, shopping centre, and retail district had a travel agency?

If you wanted to buy an airline ticket, a cruise, or a two-week excursion to Bali, you sat down in front of an agent, who explained the various options and prices. You might have also paged through a stack of colourful brochures as the agent compared the features and benefits of choosing one hotel over another.

Most of those travel agencies are gone, casualties of the internet.

The same story is true for stockbrokers.

A generation ago, if you wanted to buy a hundred shares of IBM, you either called or visited your broker, who personally placed the order in your behalf. And when it was time to sell those shares, the process required the same level of personal contact with the broker.

Today, we can buy and sell securities in real-time via our computer, without the need for human interface.

The next industry on the verge of disruption? Real estate.

The traditional role of real estate agents is already in transition, with big-name players like Zillow currently building the infrastructure and processes that will eventually eliminate the conventional job of one-on-one agency representation.

If you realize you’re working within an industry that is ultimately slated for upheaval, learn everything you can about the new projected business model.

Is there a place for you? Are your skills and experience directly transferable? Will your current expertise and talent command the same value in the new model?

This involves a little crystal ball gazing, but industry transitions — even in their infancy — always leave clues.

I’ll leave you with this:

Taking control of your career is a constant, on-going process of comparison, self-improvement, and knowing when to make a move — and when not to.

Today’s smart corporate employee knows their relationship with the company is ultimately temporary.

Sure, we talk about long-term commitment, longevity, and the value of loyalty. However, to have any real meaning, those ideas have to work in both directions.

Realistic employees have learned to look beyond the company’s promise of tomorrow. They know real success comes from active career management and an honest assessment of the “big picture.”

Today is what counts. Tomorrow is what you must prepare for.

© 2020 Roger A. Reid. All Rights Reserved.

Roger A. Reid, Ph.D. is the host of Success Point 360 Podcast and author of Better Mondays and Speak Up. A certified NLP trainer with degrees in engineering and business, Roger offers tips and strategies for achieving higher levels of career success and personal fulfillment in the real world.