Mid-career crisis

After my 2002 performance review, I got the best performance rating. But my increment was negligible. The desired increment could not be given as I maxed out the maximum limit as set by the Regional Remuneration team.  Until that time of my career, I was quite accustomed to getting an excellent rating coupled with the highest level of increment and everything else of my career was also going great.

But at some point in time, which seemed sudden to a degree, things were all starting to go in a different direction simply because I did not get my expected increment. I started to feel that my bosses with whom I always enjoyed a comfortable position, the HR team and management of the company were doing injustice to me. It generated so much negative energy in me that I thought of leaving the company.

Mid-career crisis is a common phenomenon, and it hits us around the age of 40 or so. It mostly happens to people who start out their career enjoying every bend and turn in the journey. It is however, mostly uncommon for those who work simply because they have to work, without really enjoying the experience. This reminds me of what a friend of mine once said, that "I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to have a mid-career crisis because my entire career is a crisis".

In this article my focus will be on the former, i.e., those who believe themselves to be successful at the early stage of their career with their excitement fizzling out at mid-career.

Much research confirms that the middle age is not only a confusing time in life, but it is also the most difficult time in one's career. In 2008, economists David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald found that self-reported life satisfaction takes the form of a gently curving U, beginning high in youth, bottoming out in the mid-40s, and then recovering as we get older. This trend is very common around the world.

In my 30 years of experience with multi-national companies, I have gone through varied experiences ranging from management trainee, department head, C suite to CEO in multiple companies in different countries. Today, I am going to share the different perspectives that I gathered at various important stages of my career spanning three decades.

In every organisation there is a group of people who are overly concerned about their career and the politics within the organisation, which I believe is a recipe for disaster. When your mind is too preoccupied with career growth and other dynamics of the organization, it tempers with your productive output and entraps you in poor performance.

Instead, it is better to focus all your time and mind on work. This way you have a greater possibility of being noticed and move up the ladder as against the person whose mind is mostly busy with career concerns.

Normally, in the first 10 to 15 years of a career, the good resources progress well because of their aptitude and right attitude, and they also have the right equation with the organisation. However, as they progress in their career and reach a certain height, these same set of people who were once a source of inspiration for others, start to suffer from pessimism, viewing the progress of others who are doing better with cynicism and lose the productive momentum in the process.

Such cynicism does more harm than good, reducing their potential and at the same time emitting negative energy across the company. Hence it is not worthwhile to work for a company which carries you to that cynical or bitter state.

Another common mistake of employees at this stage is that they become too negative about the work environment, and particularly the boss and HR. We think about demonstrating the desired behaviour when we move into a higher role. But instead, one must practice it now to be ready for the next role.

When the company decision is in your favour, it is a matter of merit to you. But when it is in the favour of others, it appears as favouritism. The question is are you being objective? Before we harbour thoughts of favouritism in others' success, we must remind ourselves that it is the same company that gave us brownie points in the last 10 years.

At the beginning of my career, my career goal was to become the CFO of the organisation. Whatever that I have achieved on top of the CFO role is a bonus. There is simply no end to what's next. And there is nothing wrong in being ambitious and driving our energy towards a goal. But the energy has to be channelled to the job, not politics, with a positive mind.

The author is a telecom and management expert.