Never rest on your laurels, you could get trapped in a dead-end job

By John Kariuki

Have you been on the same unchallenging job for a while without any promotion or transfer? Are you doing the same thing you did when you started your career?

You may have been denied a salary raise despite several favourable appraisals but stuck on. Worst of all, you can tell that your work is getting into your nerves. You are now more anxious with frequent bouts of temper and workplace grouses.

You are no longer enthusiastic and your work has sunk to the level of simply a means to paying monthly bills.

If some or all of the above apply to you, you are in a dead-end job. Many people know that they are in dead-end jobs and yet they feel powerless to do anything about it. But why don’t they quit? Why don’t they find something more meaningful to do?

Possible solutions

Here are some possible answers to these questions.

Ignorance: One of the most common reasons that people stick with dead-end jobs is that they do not recognise them as such. They think that a promotion or a raise is just around the corner and time goes on. Some professionals are convinced that if they endure just a little longer, it will be worth it.

Some people believe that there are no better jobs. This ignorance is based on the assumption that dead-end jobs are the rule and not the exception, especially with the often quoted corporate jingo of so many "jobless people out there". People trapped in such jobs often reason that everybody else is in the same boat.

Satisfaction: Some people stay in dead-end jobs because they are satisfied with their salaries and other benefits. These workers value comfort and routine, and they love the consistency of a regular pay slip and the time they may steal from their employers to do other unrelated things of little career enhancing value. As such, the prospect of venturing into the unknown or taking a temporary leave in order to pursue a new opportunity is unacceptable.

Apathetic workers

Apathy: On the surface, the symptoms of apathy may seem similar to those of contentedness. But the difference lies in the motivation. Whereas contented workers remain in dead-end jobs because they value routine work or because they feel adequately compensated, apathetic workers stay on because they simply don’t care.

Apathy is an absence of all feelings, both good and bad. Apathetic workers do not have strong feelings of any kind towards their job, their colleagues and employers. They simply exist in a gray twilight that stretches from eight to five, doing things mechanically.

Fear: Though ignorance, contentedness, and apathy share some of the blame, the single most common reason for people staying in dead end jobs is fear. Scores of unimaginative career people largely fear the unknown. They fear taking career risks and failing. Such people fear they are underqualified or undereducated for bigger positions and more responsibilities and most of all, they fear ending up worse off than they were before. A quote from Henry David Thoreau says: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." So how does one escape from this "life of quiet desperation" embodied in a dead end job? How does one overcome ignorance, apathy, and fear?

Make choices

The answers to these questions, which are fundamental the reasons why people stick with dead send jobs, are as complex and as varied as each individual.

The more you know about all facets of your career, the better equipped you will be to make choices about job change.

Accepting that you are in a dead-end job is just the first step to career salvation.

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