WHY MOST PEOPLE STAY IN EMPLOYMENT SITUATIONS
THAT ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR THEM

1. FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN – Have you ever heard someone say, “Well at least I have a job.” This statement is a symptom of career malaise. Those who aggressively develop marketable skills aren’t chained to their current job because they will always be capable of quickly getting a new position. Those who don’t possess marketable skills had better find an organization willing to help them gain work experience in marketable areas. Training is not good enough – you need to gain actual work experience in these areas.
2. HABIT PATTERN – It’s very easy to become complacent in your career. We can slip, over time, into viewing our work experience as a job rather than as an opportunity. We can mold our expectations and goals around the job, rather than ensuring that our work gives us valuable skills in return. We can be so concerned with doing a good job, working hard, and performing well that we forget to analyze whether the job is perpetuating our career. We often stick our head out of our hole only when our work situation becomes virtually intolerable.
3. JOB STABILITY – Many people feel that they must sacrifice opportunity, financial rewards, skill development, and job satisfaction to gain job stability. However, that shouldn’t be the case. Stability is derived, from many different components:
   1. The level of your skill.
   2. The marketability of your skills.
   3. The marketing/business capture capabilities of your organization.
   4. The effective management, at strategic levels, of your organization.
   5. The positioning of your organization’s product or services as compared to the competition.
4. TIMING – Many people want to explore other opportunities because they are not totally fulfilled at their current job. However, “the time just isn’t right… ” to look. Many people want to see their project to 100% completion or they will wait until they are very dissatisfied with their position before they look. Remember, the timing is never perfect. The right opportunity is not going to magically appear when you decide that you want to move.
5. STRESS – Change is stressful. Taking advantage of a new opportunity does create some short-term stress. We need to take time to interview, gather facts to determine whether an opportunity is superior, worry about the unknown prospects, resign and start a new position, make new friends, establish new business relationships, carve out a new role, and prove ourselves to a new group of people. The thought of these changes scares many people into staying in their comfortable, if not suitable, current job.
6. LACK OF A COMPARISON – Many people have nothing to compare their current job with. If you have no point of comparison, it’s impossible to determine if you are in the best position for you. Many people find that better career vehicles passed them by because they had not been open-minded to hearing about them.

REMEMBER – HUMAN NATURE IS GEARED TO RESIST CHANGE. WE ARE TYPICALLY CREATURES OF HABIT AND ONLY CHANGE OUR HABIT PATTERNS WHEN OUR SITUATION BECOMES UNTENABLE. THIS PSYCHOLOGY APPLIES TO THE WAY WE PERCEIVE OUR WORK ENVIRONMENT. HOWEVER, CHANGE IS NOT NECESSARILY BAD AND THE SHORT-TERM STRESS OF CHANGING JOBS CAN LEAD TO LONG TERM CAREER FULFILLMENT!