When Your Work Is Out of Control

Are you in one of the volatile careers where people are fleeing their work?

Two weeks ago, I was on a call with a young lady who announced, “ I spent over 4 years getting a degree, I’m paying for in a field I can easily lose my life in and the military isn’t even covering it!”

She hadn’t joined the armed forces nor was she even enlisted in any government program that funded her education. She had just graduated as a teacher and was feeling the sting of what might lie ahead.

She had been offered employment but was having second thoughts after communicating with professionals who were working in the area she was offered her job in.

“I love teaching,” she reported, but all the “riff-raff” that goes along with it just is making me feel this might not be for me.”

I’m sure footing her college degree in a field she was already having second thoughts about was also not a pleasant thought.

She just felt like she was already out of control before she even started!

Yet, she is not even in one of the top professions workers are leaving!

Those professions include health care workers, retail specialists, childcare workers, and restaurant and hospitality employees.

Now, it’s no secret that minimum wage jobs have suffered the consequences of COVID and have seen workers determine that it simply is not worth their time or energy to work for pay that doesn’t even afford them the ability to put food on the table or a roof over their head.

But why are people leaving professions where they have invested years of money and time getting trained for specialized fields only to exit way earlier than planned?

Think about it.

Do you have to referee potential fighting, discrimination, and abuse trying to work in your field?

If you answered “Yes!”, you just might be a teacher.

Teachers are required to not only teach but be magicians, referees, entertainers, mediators, event planners, legal analysts, medical experts, and often surrogate parents.

They are asked to not only develop lesson plans and provide instruction but also to be prepared for just about anything else that may happen in that classroom!

They are supposed to do an admiral job often without the necessary supplies or support they need to do so.

Imagine a job where you never are actually prepared in combat techniques but often find yourself on the front lines of not only crazed gunmen like in the recent Uvalde shooting but also frustrated and often unstable children as well as demanding and unrealistic parents.

Teaching has become the new lose-lose profession. Someone is always going to be unhappy with something you do or how you do it!

Don’t even get me started on health care professionals.

After taking the brunt of COVID, they are still trying to handle a backlog of procedures and patients’ needs in the middle of a supply chain shortage.

From saline flushes to blood collection tubes, chips for Radiographic machines to dialysis products, the healthcare industry is navigating unprecedented shortages in maintaining supplies.

Healthcare professionals are burning out from long hours and a population that is angry from mandates, restrictions, and limitations. Having to treat patients remotely puts additional strain on that doctor/patient relationship and many healthcare workers no longer feel they can do their jobs adequately.

Several years ago perhaps 20% of clients I served looking to grow their own business, were healthcare workers or in the education field. I am seeing almost a 57% increase in those professions seeking to do something else to earn their living now.

I get it.

I don’t want to work in a field where the restrictions keep me from doing my best.

I don’t want to have to fear the wrath of parents over a school board mandate or have my own life compromised in a pandemic where I am on the front line.

As another client shared, “ If I wanted to give up my life for someone, I would’ve joined the military. I just wanted to help educate the next generation!”

Working in a profession where you feel you are out of control can cost you mentally, physically, and emotionally and in the long run, simply take the joy out of a job you might once have truly loved.

That is exactly why I created Grow What You Know.

I’ve talked with too many teachers, healthcare professionals, and those working in low-paying jobs who wondered if they have what it takes to start a business.

YES!

Yes, you do!

Most likely the job that ‘did you in’ also prepared you in many ways for being a business owner.

Most people don’t realize the skills and talents they have that can be turned into side incomes or a successful business where they might be able to leave their current position.

Whether you choose to be a healthcare consultant, child care trainer, jewelry makers, pet groomers or trainers, interior designer or stages, marketing expert, graphic designer, technology advisor, podcaster, event planner, photographer, seamstress, naturalist, educational consultant, financial advisor, mechanic, home repair specialist, communication specialists or nonprofit director, you can do this!

Don’t feel out of control in the way you earn a living.

You are going to be working a large portion of your life and you most certainly want to control the way that you do so.

It’s time for everyone to realize the only work you do where you can set your own hours, decide who you will work with, where you will work and how much you will earn is the work YOU CREATE!

I realize there are so many people fully capable of creating work that they will enjoy and work that allows them to earn the kind of living they deserve and yet, no matter how skilled or educated, the fear of growing an idea into a business looms like a monster for many.

You have a talent, interest, passion, and gift that is unique and specific to you.

It’s not about just being another photographer, consultant, or hairdresser, it’s about how YOU will be in those businesses or any other you want to start.

You can get back in control of the way you earn your income again.

Every entrepreneur started with an idea and a dream.

Kathy coaches entrepreneurs on how to start and grow thriving businesses. Learn more about Grow What You Know!