Self-respect
June 15, 2001
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Is there any room within our high-tech work for self-respect?
Talk to anyone of the previous generation and you might find the answer
to that question is a firm, no! You are either employed or not. If your
employer takes advantage of you or provides a less than adequate work
environment, too bad. No one ever said work was easy.
I would advise you to question this thinking. Even in this current economy
we have many advantages over our predecessors. More and more of our basic
needs are easily met and this allows us to stretch ourselves; ask ourselves,
can't work be a better place?
Trapped
Too often I talk to high-tech careerists who, even if they don't use the
word itself, feel trapped in their current job. They don't see any way
out of their job, but don't like it either. They have come to believe,
either by themselves or through interaction with their managers that this
job is the best they can expect.
This is a high-tech career danger zone. You must respect yourself and
your talents more than that. You must start believing today that you could
and would find a better job any time you wished. You must respect yourself
enough to understand that you don't have to be treated badly or have your
worth to the company underestimated.
Perhaps your company believes they could replace you in an instant, and
even says so to your face. You need to believe that you have valuable
skills that contribute directly to the bottom line of the company. You
need to be able to prove this to both yourself and your management. You
should be keeping a portfolio of your work for just that reason. Sometimes
you need to look back on what you have done and see how much you have
accomplished. You need to remind yourself that you do good work, even
if others fail to recognize it.
If you had the skills to get hired in your current position, you have
the skills to get another, better job. If you stop believing in yourself,
stop respecting yourself and your talents, you are truly trapped; not
only by your employer, but by yourself.
The best way out of this thinking is to imagine staying in your current
job for the rest of your working life. This will be the reality you will
face if you stop respecting yourself and the work that you do.
Time to leave
If you want to have the best possible high-tech career, you need to be
able to leave any position or company that does not serve your career
goals. Leaving a job is absolutely frightening, but also absolutely necessary.
I would be lying to you if I said that it wasn't scary leaving a job.
In some ways, these choices have been the most frightening of my life.
Yet, I know, deep inside myself, that I have the skills, the abilities
and the desire to get the next, better job, that takes me to the next
level in my career. You should understand this, too.
You must understand that there are times when you HAVE to leave a company.
Has your boss been shouting at you and the rest of the staff? Are performance
reviews and raises constantly being delayed? Is the company late in paying
you? Are you being asked to behave unethically? Does management tell you
to outright lie to clients? It is issues such as these that trapped employees
face everyday. This trapped feeling can lead them to do things that go
against their very nature. No one should ever be placed in this position.
Confrontation
Having a clear understanding of your own skills and abilities provides
you the strength to say NO whenever your company or management goes too
far. It provides you the courage to confront people, calmly and unemotionally
about their behaviors -- and you should confront them. Many jobs can be
salvaged if some accommodations can be made. You will never know, though,
unless you confront the offending party and explain why their actions
are wrong. You should attempt the solve the problems, but you need not
give in. You know that if the company won't see the error of its ways,
you can go elsewhere. Sometimes that is the only action left to you.
Be under no illusions, though, that you can change the world, only that
you make a small difference in your life and the lives of those around
you. Your actions are like one pebble in a landslide. Individually you
have little effect, but together with others, you can make great changes.
I can only hope that if more and more people take action companies will
begin to realize that employees are not interchangeable and their skills
are important to maintaining the overall health of the company.
Some might think you are a bit crazy for confronting your company or leaving
a job, but you must do what is best for you. Too often, though, the naysayers
are those who are trapped in their current position. Sometimes they can
even resent you for having the ability to "get out." Maybe your
actions can show them there is a better way.
Respect for yourself and the work you do can lead to some frightening
consequences; confrontation, leaving a job, stress; but it can also give
you a clear vision of where your career can go. You need the freedom to
chose your course, control your life and take your career to its highest
level.
If you would like to join a discussion of Career-Op questions, visit the
Career Opportunities forums at http://forums.friendsintech.com/.
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