A pandemic of blindness in our careers & lives

Can I get 5 minutes of your time? But 40?

A maximum of three minutes will be needed to read through this article. And another 40 if you want to search more on the recommended ressources. This is especially needed nowadays as we are reviewing our year and setting resolutions.?

In a social media culture of reels, carrousel slides, recipes & shortcuts this may seem a lot. But staying with a book for more than one hour, with a long format podcast for 2,3 hours or in a real & deep conversation has become so scarce.?

The direct covid pandemic was the easier part. What followed was an epidemic of blindness & disconnection in our lives & careers. People are not being seen, valued and heard. And now they are feeling this more acutely than ever.?

We are fully in a mental health crisis. In 2016, 1 in 6 people had a mental health problem in the EU (17.3%). A survey conducted in June 2023 revealed that 1 in 2 persons (46%) in the EU has experienced emotional and psychosocial problems such as feeling anxious or depressed in the last 12 months.?

At CareerShift.ro we are empirically seeing that for people wanting to change their careers. There is an unprecedented level of anger and resentment towards leaders, companies and work environments. The level of burnout has substantially increased. While most people believe that remote & hybrid are a blessing, this hasn’t come without a cost. Without a great support system at home, tight interpersonal connections and an intentional reach to personally connect at work, the problem is just getting worse. We are still on the path of learning how to integrate this new way of working and enjoy its freedom and advantages. Although it may seem that we had “more time for us” and “more freedom”, most people have put that extra time into more work.?

But this goes beyond work (although this is where people spend most of their active mental energy). This extends into our homes and social connections. I heard a lot of times that during and after pandemics that social ties have been broken and they didn’t quite come back. There was a 22% increase in loneliness in the EU.

To be a good colleague, a friend, a partner is a skill. And we are failing at it!

The average person, when they meet a person and start a conversation with them, they accurately understand what happens in that person’s head 20% of the time. With friends and family it goes up 35% of the time and some people are very good, but that still means only 55% of the time. Some people get 0% but they believe they get 100%. (studied at University of Texas)

“A society that becomes more sad becomes more mean”. David Brooks - “How to know a person.The art of seeing others deeply and being deeply seen”

I will just address the field of work, for the time being.?

Having access to so many people and seeing so much suffering related to our careers in the last 3 years I have learned X important lessons:

1. “Blaming means inner suffering” - while this can be extrapolated in so many ways, I will only speak about the blaming I am seeing about workplaces all over social media & Linkedin especially. It’s like everyone has become an organizational psychologist and will know what a toxic work environment is. And this narrative is dangerous. It transforms our disconnection into anger and further suffering. Little sustainable career change has been made from this energy and until we choose to work on ourselves nothing in our external working environments will consistently shift.

1. “Meaning is our own story” - building upon the point above most people are expecting meaning from outside. It’s the boss or the company who should provide it. Or, there are some jobs and vocations out there that intrinsically have it. Well… meaning is a story. And this story is deeply rooted in who we are. We give meaning to things. Our brain is a meaning making machine and as we can give meaning to an event in our life we can give it to tasks, jobs, impact. So how awarely are we attributing this meaning to our current or projected career?

1. “The future of careers is polyamorous” - as I know this is controversial, stay with me for some seconds. Most of the people that will be reading this article are multilaterally developed. This being said, it’s highly unlikely that you will find all that you need in one line of work. Not as work is designed right now. While the best of us have managed to isolate their job scope on what they love most, for the majority this is not possible. So we may have a parallel painting passion, we might be a DJ, a coach, a NGO advisor or anything else. While this can be a hobby it can be also jobby and eventually one of the careers that we are simultaneously involved in and monetise upon.

1. “Learning is not about knowing but about being” - as this article, or a speech, or a course might bring some new perspectives, information is doing very little for us. Implementation does the rest. We know a lot and apply too little. Yet, we are continuously searching for new information, whilst the wisdom is often in simple things applied well. Because the transformations I’ve witnessed were done in programs that were concentrated on individual insights that were developed through subsequent experimentation, I focus a lot on this personally and on the programs that we run.

1. “Remote Working is not a gift” - we need to be extremely disciplined, have a great support system at home and know how to connect at work even online/hybrid and put the effort to do this intentionally as it’s not coming naturally. Being productive alone is not the aim. Bringing collective impact is.?

I’ve been inspired to write this article by the wonderful participants that we had in our programs at www.careershift.ro who had the courage to work on their transformation in an otherwise complicated & transforming work environment. It is their kind words and acts of gratitude that are a big chunk of my gratitude retrospective for the year.?

The places where I am addressing these kind of issues are below:

If you know you want to work on your career & its life impact then enroll here:?

https://careershift.ro/career-booster?

If you want to assist others on their career journeys then become a certified coach here: https://www.careercoachingcertification.com/?

If you haven’t decided yet but want to know more enroll to this Webinar and stay tuned to our events: https://careershift.ro/webinar-gratuit?

If you are satisfied with your career, but want to see what inspired me on the interpersonal connection today, watch this video or read the book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwENbKn3tqI&t=412s?

Feel free to write directly to me on any medium converging the above or not and I will surely respond.?

About the data here:

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/mental-health/