When People Get Stuck

First the work starts to get a little stale and tedious. Then frustration sets in as others around you are promoted while you stay put. Before long, any move up the corporate ladder seems impossible, and acquiring the skills for another job looks too daunting.

So you mope around your cubicle or office, doing little more than surfing the Net, gossiping via e-mail and reading the newspaper, doing the bare minimum to collect your paycheck and get out the door as early as possible.

It’s a familiar scenario to the millions of American workers who are trapped in a job they no longer want yet feel powerless to change.

But being trapped is usually a matter of perception rather than reality, career coaches say. Most workers just assume their careers should run like an escalator--one smooth, steady ride to the top. When they don’t see a promotion immediately in front of them, they start to panic.

“We get stuck and start thinking in black and white,” says Betsy Collard, director of program and innovation for the Career Action Network, a Cupertino, Calif.-based nonprofit career counseling center.

“It’s either I can or can’t do this”--but usually, Collard says, there are more options open to us than we think, although some require a move to the side or even down.

Most people are just too afraid to shatter the status quo because they don’t want to risk their standard of living or lose their network of friends, or they are afraid that what they really want to do carries less prestige.

But in today’s rapidly changing job market, where few people stay with one company long enough to get a pension, experts say it’s smart for employees to ask themselves regularly whether their job still challenges them. Instead of looking to move up to the next title, they should be asking themselves, “How can I get the best skills and pay while I’m here?”

“You can’t just nestle in and wait for the company to take care of you anymore,” says Beverly L. Kaye, a career development consultant in Sherman Oaks and author of “Up Is Not the Only Way” (Davies-Black, 1997).

“It’s now up to the individual to self-nominate, to raise their hand and say, ‘This is the talent I have,’ and use it.”

John, a fortysomething copyright manager in the music industry who asked not to be identified, says he works hard and has developed valuable skills in his job, but he feels his talents are not being rewarded. In the decade that he’s been in his current job, he has received no promotions and few pay raises despite the flood of savvy deals he says he’s cut with music publishing companies. Although his peers and competitors constantly praise him, he feels his boss sees him as washed-up.

“New is better than old to her,” John says. “She can work the new faces for a while until they, too, get tired of it.”

He thinks he wants to change jobs, maybe even industries, but he’s not sure what he likes to do most, and he would miss the people he works with. “I enjoy certain aspects of it, like the business relationships I’ve formed,” John says. “But it’s become rather routine, like sausage making.”

He says he wants to confront his boss and give her an ultimatum: Either reward me for the good job I do, or lose me. But Collard says that may not be a good idea. People, she says, are expected to get better at their jobs each year, just as John has.

“Asking for a promotion or salary increase for doing his job well is not appropriate anymore,” she says.

She asks, what is John doing on his own to learn and grow at the company? Has he worked with any other departments or taken on any new projects? Has he asked to be put on commission to keep him motivated, instead of receiving a salary? If the situation really has become impossible for him to deal with, has he approached vendors serving his company to see if he could work for them?

Alternatively, could he transfer his skills, perhaps negotiate royalties for some other industry? The important thing, analysts say, is getting clear about what you like to do and what is most important to you in a working environment.

Most advisors suggest you start by writing down what it is you enjoy and what you’re good at. Ask supportive friends where they think you excel, and how you’re perceived. If there are gaps in your skills, for instance, with particular computer programs, pick up some additional training from the continuing-education offerings of a college. Don’t invest too much money, experts say, in getting extensive retraining.

When you’re ready to make a change, don’t try to change both job function and industry at the same time. That makes a transition more difficult, counselors say, and you can’t leverage the skills gained in your current job to get more pay.

Look first at what lateral moves you can make within your company. Talk to people in other departments about their jobs. Do a little cross-training, perhaps work a day a week in another area or volunteer for a task force or other short-term assignment.

Make sure the grass really is greener before you make a move. And don’t make the common mistake of relocating just to get away from an unpleasant situation. That’s where most “stuck” people go first, Kaye says. You’re usually just transferring your old problems to a new locale.

And when you go into your boss’ office to tell him you’re burned out, don’t expect him to fix you. You need to present five or six solutions to your problem, Kaye says.

“Say, ‘Here’s what I need and why I need it,’ ” she adds. Also, ask yourself if there is one part of your job that you especially like. If customer contact is now only 5% of your job but that’s what you really enjoy, figure out how you can increase that activity.

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With a tight labor market and increasing instability in most companies, job titles and descriptions have become less codified and more flexible than people think, experts say. Be willing to make a bold jump and take a cut in pay if it will put you ahead in two to five years, says San Francisco-based career coach Donald Asher.

Conversely, if you’re considering accepting a promotion, make sure it will give you what you want. Examine the sacrifices in time, stress, additional paperwork and oversight that a management job can bring. Is it worth it? Would you miss the hands-on work?

Over a casual lunch, ask your friends about their jobs and how they got them. You don’t have to say you’re looking for another job, just tell them you’re curious about what it is they do. It may take just a few conversations to help shake loose the answer to your career dilemma.

Sometimes it’s as simple as finding something outside of work to engage you again. Caroline Nahas, a managing director of executive search firm Korn/Ferry International, recalls one executive who rekindled his passion for life and his job by taking helicopter flying lessons and eventually earning a pilot’s license.

“He’s still doing the same job, but he’s not relying as much on the work side to make him happy,” Nahas says. Other clients have gotten similarly energized by mentoring or volunteering outside the workplace.

Denise, a project manager for a telecommunications company, has moved up the corporate ladder during the course of more than two decades in her company, rising from clerk to engineer and then executive.

But it was her dabbling in stocks and other investments that made her think she has really found her niche. During the last eight years, she’s helped her friends invest, and has made quite a bit of money for herself. Now, just a few years away from her pension, she wants to pursue a career in personal finance, although she’s not sure how to get started. She’s especially uncertain because she doesn’t have a college degree and has been in telecommunications for so long.

Kaye suggests that Denise spend the next two years doing information-gathering interviews with people in the investment industry, attending seminars, finding out what kind of training she needs to get into that business and building a network of people who would vouch for her skill.

“She needs to get herself ready for what’s coming next,” Kaye says.

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Many experts suggest looking for work every four or five years, even if you intend to stay with the same company. The process can be energizing, reminding you of what you’re good at and how valuable you are, says Lilli Friedland, a corporate psychologist in West Los Angeles.

“People are petrified that they are replaceable and they have no place to go,” she says. A job search can remind them that they have options, or remind them of the skills they need to remain marketable.

It is also in the best interest of companies to make sure employees are challenged and growing in their jobs, says David A. Thomas, an organizational behavior professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Business Administration. “A lot of core competency resides in the heads of these people. If I’ve got someone in my organization who has learned the culture, the cost of retraining is less than bringing someone else in new.”

And remember, Thomas says, when you land that dream job, it’s not going to stay your dream job forever.

“It’s good to be always scanning the industry for the next challenge or opportunity,” he says.