Episode 110: Watch Out For Your 5-Year Workiversary

Key Learnings

• We examined data from 970 such people in a single organization. They were between 35 and 44 years old (the typical range for the onset of a mid-career crisis), and they all rated their engagement at work in the bottom 10%.
• Thirty percent had been at the company from five to 10 years; 36% had been there between 10 to 20 years, but the age sample spanned all levels and positions in the organization, including executives, and we found people in day prison in all tenure categories. In fact, we found three executives who were in day prison along with their staffs.
• The most discontent stemmed from employees’ identifying a situation where the organization mistreated customers in some way that shook their confidence and caused them to feel a loss of pride in their company.
• The company failed to value and practice values such as teamwork, trust, and fostering diversity.
• Over the years, we’ve asked executives to reflect on their own curve of excitement and creativity in all the jobs they’ve done. At what point does the downturn occur? The consistent answer we receive is five years.

• You can try to pull yourself out of the career ditch by shifting the burden from blaming the organization to raising the bar on your own efforts. If the organization won’t help you do it, use your own initiative.

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