Let’s talk about being complacent for a moment. Complacency in itself isn’t what most job articles talk about. Many career articles discuss people hating their jobs, and while that’s certainly a horrible thing to have. There are a significant amount of people who fall right on the other side of the highway. They’re happy at work, they’re content. They may not be doing what they’ve always dreamed about, they’re bored quite a bit but the boredom is killing them.
If this is you, you should not be okay with this. You like the title, the pay allows you to maintain your lifestyle but you have no idea what the future looks like, if there even is a future there for you. Humans are fickle creatures, we get caught in our daily routines and we never really think much more about them.
Complacency is contentment, it’s waking up and doing the same thing over and over again and lulling yourself into submission. You wake up, showering, brushing your teeth, getting your Starbucks, and getting to the office. What are you doing about your professional life?
Are you engaging in self and professional improvement? You can’t settle for the same day every day and expect growth. You hurt yourself in the process.
Can you think about if a surgeon chose complacency and didn’t want to try any new methods? You can’t fear change, life is change. Are you a victim of complacency? Are you stuck in your everyday? Why?
You may simply be misinterpreting comfort for fear of change and every single time that will breed complacency. Comfortable patterns often become cycles that we don’t want to get out of.
So, let’s hop into it. I want to ask you…. be honest with yourself. Are you a victim of career complacency? Check them off as you ask yourself… If you check off 4 out of 7, what are you going to do to change it?
- You don’t risk sharing your ideas or opinions
- You’re no longer giving your thoughts on projects. It’s because you’re no longer interested. You may think people aren’t paying attention but they are. Start paying attention. Speak up.
- You’re not building new networks
- You stopped networking. You’re no longer going to events. You stopped caring.
- You’re not maintaining old networks
- When is the last time you reached out to your mentor? Do you remember… Why is that?
- You’re not staying up to date on the latest tech/info in your field
- When you care, you’re constantly staying up to date on the latest news and the most recent advances. Once you stop, it’s due to comfortability and complacency.
- You’re doing the bare minimum
- Are you just barely doing the work you need to do? You’re not looking for anything extra? If you have to run numbers, you run those but nothing else. You don’t reach out for assignments or look for where your team could use assistance.
- You’re not contributing to workplace conversations
- When your headphones are in all day, you come off as stoic and unapproachable. This happens when you’ve gotten tired of your enviornment
- You’re cutting corners
- This happens when you start looking for the quickest ways to get things done. Cutting corners is never okay, but often happens when someone falls into a complacent state.
What Can I Do About It?
There are a few things you can do about it:
- Ask for feedback: Talk to your boss and ask for additional and different assignments. It will break up the monotony.
- Change Your Routine: Do something different on your way to work, change your lunch routine, or change your daytime routine
- Correct Poor Performance: Stop doing the ridiculous stuff!! Don’t cut corners, don’t do poor performance
- Keep Meeting New People in Your Career: Network! Join networking organizations, join MeetUp, or join Toastmasters (I’m a member, reach out for questions!)
I hope this helps! Say no to complacency ALL 2019!!
Thanks for the excellent article