Why full time professional employment won’t Make your Future Work

I have spent all my working life around professionals who have sought to build a career through their professional skills. But very early on in my working life, I realised that being in full-time professional employment wouldn't Make my Future Work. As I talk to others who have already built successful professional careers, they increasingly tell me that full-time professional employment won't make their Future Work.??

So here are ten reasons you should consider that will help you reflect on whether full-time professional employment will?Make your Future Work.

1. You lack opportunities to learn and grow

As your career progresses, particularly from age 45+, you will find that your professional skills are less valued than your leadership, management and influencing skills. Many organisations you work with will not invest in developing these skills in you. Inevitably, you face a situation where most of your working life is being in meetings, liaising, coordinating and dealing with people issues, rather than applying your professional skills. So, from a personal and professional development point of view, you've run out of road.

2. You have no opportunities for further advancement

However far you've risen through your professional career, there comes a point where you realise you won't get the next big job. Whether you're a senior executive or even a director, you start to see that stepping up to the next level will never happen.?

In fact, it's worse than that:??

You can't move to a different business with a better brand that will stretch and grow you. Instead, you're constantly thinking about how you'll survive the next management reshuffle, how you'll avoid being moved sideways into a backwater, and how you'll make sure that you retain the job you've got. And when you lose your current role, you will likely be working for a smaller, less prestigious, less rewarding organisation with a weaker support system and less talented colleagues.

3. You're tired of working 60+ hours a week

Professional employment is getting more and more demanding as organisations de-layer and reorganise. Very often, you'll find that your job becomes, at the next reshuffle, 50% to 100% more challenging as you take on somebody else's responsibilities and have more direct reports or a wider scope of control. The expectations of what you have to deliver have increased by 50% – 70% and 60 hours a week is only a starting point.??

In addition, you may be expected to drop everything and fly somewhere on short notice, be prepared to have conference calls at the weekend, work during your commute, and attend evening meetings. The core 60 hours is never going to be enough.

Many senior professionals tell me that because they spend so much time in meetings, they don't have time to do 'real' work during the working day. To achieve the organisation's demands, the 'real' work must be done in their own time, out of the office.

4. Your personal priorities have changed

You recognise that you want to be free to support those ageing relatives who need more care, spend time with your teenage children or enjoy the benefits of rebuilding your relationship with your life partner.

Perhaps your children have left home; you want to pursue some of those hobbies which have been squeezed out, have quality time with those you care about most or pursue that dream you have been nursing for years. Full-time professional employment on the terms that are available in the market won't allow you to do that. Ever.

5. You want to move to part-time

Flexible working for full-time professionals is occasionally available. However, if you are senior, it can be challenging to negotiate. In a large organisation, you might be able to apply for a job share when a new opportunity comes up, but most senior roles don't offer job share. I hear too many people say they've moved to four days a week, but all that means is they suffered a 20% pay cut and are working just as hard.

6. You want to sustain your working life beyond 65 and into your early 70s

Unless you're a judge, there are very few roles in which you can sustain your professional employment indefinitely. Equality law holds out the promise that you can't be sacked because of your age but only because of lack of capacity. The reality is that most organisations have a culture and practice that removes you between ages 60 and 65. However, there are good reasons why, in your early 60s, you want to be working into your mid-70s. You know working keeps you lively if it's enjoyable and rewarding. Perhaps you can't see a sustainable financial future unless you continue to build your pension and savings into your mid-70s.

7. Your full-time professional employment is no longer what you signed up to

In many corporate environments, your professional experience, whether in finance, marketing, IT, HR, sales or something else, is no longer what you are valued for. Success is measured by your ability to play politics, manage dysfunctional relationships, manipulate others and survive through regular reshuffles. Your ability to play the corporate game has become more important than any value you can bring from your professional skills, and you have just had enough.

8. You're bored with what's going on

It feels like you've seen it all before. Even when you've moved to another organisation, it's the same thing dressed differently. You are bored. You are ready to make a radical change to your working life. You are in your late 40s, early 50s or even a bit older. You don't want the same old until you're too old for anything else.

9. You've always hankered after working for yourself

You would love that freedom. You relish the opportunity for new choices; full-time professional employment will never give you that. In fact, as you've risen through your career, your freedom of action and joy in the everyday aspects of your work has been diminishing, step by step, year by year.

10. You want to move from success to significance

Yes, you've had a successful professional career. Yes, you're now working with a great team and organisation. But ultimately, all you're doing is helping to make richer people richer. You'd like to make a difference beyond the day-to-day support of the business you're in. Your organisation is making steps towards ESG, CSR, Diversity, Green, but you don't think it will make enough change fast enough. You won't see the significant difference you hoped for in the things you care about.

Conclusion

For you, these may not be your ten reasons. You may not have as many as ten reasons. However, uncritically carrying on carrying on won't?Make your Future Work. It's time to explore the alternatives. Look at the on-demand webinar at?https://2ndhalfcareer.com ?, review your Future Work Prospect Score, or take the 30-day challenge.

If you are sitting in a hot bath in a cold room that is slowly getting colder, there is only so long that you can top it up with a little more hot water. The longer you take to get out, have a brisk towelling down and get into fresh clothes, the more likely you will struggle to get warm again.