A Bull in A China Shop

Many of us invest countless hours and efforts in our academic studies, after which we accumulate many years of experience while working for minimum wages. Throughout our career, we believe that if we are good employees and gather a vast knowledge in our profession, eventually we will have an advantage over our peers and will become significant factors for our organization. We believe that the organization will encourage us to better ourselves and will welcome our efforts.

Is It?

In this article, I am going to discuss several reasons that might lead an employee to quit his/her place of employment while referring to the employee's feelings and the organization's character. In addition, I am going to offer some advice that might assist you in choosing a place of employment that suits you the most.

Do you know the feeling you have when you try to come up with new ideas, better working methods or new technologies and so on but you hit the wall?

You recall your first job interview with the company during which statements like "we develop our workers"' "there is room for growth", "there is room for advancement" and so on were said. However, in reality, you realize soon after that none of those statements would probably ever happen.

Then, the questions pop up. What is going on here? Why wouldn't my manager be interested in promoting me - after all, my success is his/her success? You begin to wonder whether the organizational inner politics are more important than your ability to contribute to the organization.

It might surprise you but the answer to these questions is YES.

Daniel H. Pink claims, in his book "When", that there are five questions an employee might ask him/herself in order to decide when he/she should quit his/her job. If the answer to two or more questions is positive the time is right to move on to the next job.

The questions are:

1. Do I want to continue with this job after the first year of employment or after the second or the third? The annual anniversary is a personal milestone for the employee, thus it leads him/her to examine his/her level of job satisfaction. If the answer is no, it is time to start looking for a job right away, thus on the next anniversary, one would have a new job.

2. Do you feel that you are not only independent but also presented with challenges in your current job? Jobs that are demanding but do not allow any kind of independence wear out the worker. Jobs that allow you to be independent but are not challenging will probably become boring quickly.

The worst positions are the ones that do not challenge and do not offer any level of control. If there is nothing one can do about it, one should consider moving on to a new place of employment.

3. Does your manager allow you to be your best?

If your manager offers his/her support instead of blaming you, praises your efforts, has a sense of humor and so on, you are probably in a good place. If his/her behavior is the opposite, you should consider seriously to move on.

4. Are you being employed for three to five years? According to many records, after being employed three years in an organization, the workers acquire sufficient new tools to reenter the job market and get a job with higher pay. A period of time of less than three years is not long enough for acquiring new tools and after five years the employee is too attached to his/her organization.

Starting a new job in a new place means working at administrative positions and this could make the move more complicated.

5. Are your daily assignments match your long-term plans?

Studies show that when one's personal goals match one's organization's goals, one would be more content and, as a result, more efficient.

Stop for a moment and markdown your goals for the next five years, then - for the next ten years. If there is a match- it is great. If not - it is time to consider a move.

All the above are serious reasons that definitely cause one to thing whether one is in a good place of employment or not. However, there are additional reasons that might lead one to consider seriously changing one's place of employment.

In my opinion, there is another important reason that should be added to the above list. When you, as an employee, feel that you are like a bull in a china shop in your place of employment.

What does it mean? You are being extremely careful with every move you make; you do your best not to step on anyone's toes, not to break anything and not to disrupt anything or anybody.

How does it happen?

During the first year of employment in a new place you learn the job, the organization's conduct and the work processes. When you reach the desired level of control of the knowledge and the processes you begin to identify the organizational needs and you try to meet them, you want to contribute and to add additional value to your organization.

However, what happens during the stage in which you initiate a procedure or a process and nothing happens? You get the feeling that you are being held back and your peers are afraid of you. Even your manager prefers to keep you on the back burner. Even you begin to realize that your presence is intimidating.

Following that, you find yourself thinking many times before you even send mail or ask for something. You are constantly being bothered by the question of how it might be taken and am I acting properly?

In my opinion, this is a good reason to decide that the time is right to move on.

Herzberg's two factors theory claims that lacking a leading positive factor leads to dissatisfaction while its presence leads to an employee's satisfaction.

There are motivational (inner) factors like interest, challenge and so on and logical external factors like salary, work hours, work environment and so on.

The feeling that you act like a bull in a china shop might lead to a feeling of failure and being unappreciated. These are the most significant factors that influence your level of satisfaction at your work of employment. 

Before continuing with Herzberg's theory, let's try and think whether it can happen in any organization?

In my opinion, it depends on the company's DNA. If the company has a DNA that renews itself, it is reasonable to assume that workers with new ideas and initiatives would be views as an asset while a company that prefers to maintain the status quo would, most likely, turn into a china shop. And, as in any china shop, you may look but not touch - one must never forget that:

You break it - you buy it

China shop companies are usually companies that have been around for 15-20 years.

The last time a new VP was nominated has been a very long time ago.

It is reasonable to assume that the company did not enter new markets neither marketed new products for quite a while.

It is doubtful that you might find, in such companies, new technologies or brilliant workers that have been employed for a long period of time. It will probably be tough to identify a significant change that took place. No, layoffs are not a significant change.

Let's try and imagine that you are that bull and thing about which of Herzberg's motivational factors had an impact?

It is safe to assume that you are not satisfied with the company’s policies and your achievements are not being appreciated enough. This results in the fact that the relationship with your superiors is not that great.

Wouldn't you just quit your job? Yes, is the most likely answer.

Nevertheless, it doesn't mean that we would not want to work for a china shop company. There are periods in one's life that working for such a company is good enough. It might suit one's character. One never knows.

When you are 20-28 years old you might be interested in learning and gaining experience. Working for a china shop company just might be the place.

At the ages of 28-38, we want to advance, and this place might not be the right place.

At the ages of 38-48, we want to be in control, thus if we are in a senior position in such an organization, it might suit us since the status quo will enable us to have complete control.

In addition, it depends on our character- our brain is divided into the rational side and the emotional side. Both sides work together simultaneously. The rational side wants to advance and learn new things on the job while the emotional side wants to remain in the comfort area and not to work too hard. The question is which side controls us more.

At the end, it is a question of timing. In which period of our life we are? How old are we?

More important, it is our awareness of all of it. Before we start a new job we, should ask ourselves what is more important at our current period of life? Do we look for innovations or control?

We have the tendency to examine the benefits, the job description (which is usually copied from other sources). The people we meet during the process and how nice are they?

Stop for a moment. Before you sign your new work contract, imagine where will you be a year from now, what are you doing? How do you feel? What disappoints you? What do you hope will happen? Is this the place I have been searching for? Would I become a bull in a china shop? You will probably know what the answer to this is.

Even if the job looks cool, the benefits are great, the people are nice and everything looks perfect, imagine yourself a year from now and try to understand the organization's DNA because you will not be able to change it.

Another way to help yourself to choose the right job for you is to imagine that a year from now you realize that you made a bad decision. You feel like a bull in a china shop. You do not advance, and you do not like the place you are in. This is the place to ask yourself what can you do differently TODAY? What would you ask yourself today? What things would you check today? What decisions will you make today in order for it to never happen again? This method can help you any time you start a new project or assignment.

Then, do not hesitate to try any other method that might suit you to examine a new place of employment and you will find out that the chances of you finding the right place for you are higher than you might think.

Daniela Haguel

HR & Co-active coach

0503013485

daniela.ginu@gmail.com

Sources:

Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2010) "Switch": How to change things when change is hard

Daniel H. Pink (2017) " When": the scientific secrets of perfect timing

Frederick Herzberg, Bernard Mausner, Barbara Bloch Snyderman (1959) "The motivation to work".