Things could be worse
Last year I attended a finance conference in an uptown hotel in Central London; my first large-scale work event since late 2019. I was very excited, primarily because it was free and the Trinidadian magic word is free. It elicits an unsubstantiated level of giddiness in our culture that cannot be explained.
Towards lunchtime, I noted that a fair number of people were very muted. Don’t get me wrong, a room full of qualified accountants is as exciting as you’re imagining. But, there are usually a few people who have broken the mould and provide an accountant-appropriate entertainment level.
At the end of the conference, I realised that I’d heard the phrase - “Things could be worse” - and its variations a few times. I suppose given that we’re in a global pandemic, living our lives in limbo, we have actually experienced things being worse. However, this phrase was almost always part of the response to career and job-related questions.
Over the past two years, many articles have been written on people’s dissatisfaction with their careers, jobs, bosses, work-life balance, etc, primary drivers for the Great Resignation.
“Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. While turnover is typically highest among younger employees, our study found that over the last year, resignations actually decreased for workers in the 20 to 25 age range (likely due to a combination of their greater financial uncertainty and reduced demand for entry-level workers). Interestingly, resignation rates also fell for those in the 60 to 70 age group, while employees in the 25 to 30 and 45+ age groups experienced slightly higher resignation rates than in 2020 (but not as significant an increase as that of the 30-45 group).”
While the pandemic spurred many people to make career changes, there are a significant number of people who have not, for various reasons. And, for them, things could be worse. I met a few of these persons that day, and I made a mental note to notice whether this feeling was present within my team. Unfortunately, sentiments like this can slowly and surreptitiously spread through, unnoticed, especially during high-pressure periods.
A few months later, I interviewed a candidate for a vacancy, and I asked the inevitable question of why are you looking to leave your current role. His answer, “I haven’t been satisfied for some time due to lack of career progression. It’s quite easy and comfortable to stay in my current company during the pandemic, and I know it could be worse elsewhere, I’m willing to make a calculated decision to find out."
This candidate later turned down the role because he’d put a monetary value on hybrid working, and we disagreed; the constraints of banding et al. He had placed an economic value on the risk of things being worse elsewhere, and I wasn’t mad at it.
Things could be worse, either compels someone to stay or to take the risk to find out whether it’s true. I’m not unilaterally advocating the latter because some circumstances make the former the only possible action.
However, if today you’re in a career space where things could be worse, and this has resulted in time passing by, leaving you feeling that you’ve been left behind or that it’s too late, I recommend one small step. Have your CV reviewed by a professional; sometimes, hearing someone else list your accomplishments, transferable skills, et al. is transformative, giving you the confidence to try.
A former deputy Unilever CFO once said, “Each year I go out into the market to see what’s out there, to get a benchmark to see what my career is worth". This statement freely said in front of the entire finance team, has always stayed with me. He was always ahead of things being worse.
For a CV review, I recommend the services of Samantha Clarke: sam@samanthaand.co
Till next time.
*originally published January 19th.