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Low Engagement at Work, Finding Career Mentors, and Good Intentions Gone Bad
Low Engagement at Work, Finding Career Mentors, and Good Intentions Gone Bad
š„ Soā¦ employee engagement is not very high in the workplace, and that likely has repercussions beyond just collaboration and productivity in organizations.
For example, Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report states that:
Only 23 percent of employees feel like they are thriving at work, while 59 percent are "quiet quitting" and 18 percent are actively disengaged.
51 percent of employees are watching or actively seeking a new job with the intent to leave.
On the other hand, 44 percent of employees experience significant stress on an average day (52 percent in the USA).
š Those numbers donāt share a happy tale, but as one of my mentors says, āAll progress starts by telling the truth.ā So we have to start where we are.
What does this mean for you?
š¬ Well, hopefully, if youāre working, youāre one of the few people who does feel engaged at work.
If not, there are a couple of paths you can take:
You can change how you operate at your current workplace to improve your engagement.
You can change where you work.
Either way, the invitation is for you to take ownership of your career rather than just waiting around and hoping things change for you.
Hot job alert: CLEAR - Corporate is looking for a technology-focused Senior Engineer Manager, offering up to $250,000 a year. Grab this opportunity before time runs out!
Career tips
š Hitch On a Mentor Early in Your Technical Career
There are a few things that are as important to your personal development as finding good, supportive mentors in your career. It's important not only because you can gain knowledge and skills from a mentor, but also because they can help provide personal support and facilitate success in many areas.
I connect the importance of a mentor to Newton's 1st Law of Motion:
"An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force."
A good mentor can act as that "outside force" to help you progress through your career, improve your current performance, and help you navigate complexities in personal relations, office politics, and negotiations.
There are many types of mentors, and Iāve found it beneficial to have both internal and external mentors from the perspective of your current organization. This is because they can advise and help you in different ways.
š¤¼āāļø An internal mentor:
Can help you work through problems with business processes
Is able to connect you with specific people and resources available in your company
Is sometimes biased in advising you because of company responsibilities
š An external mentor:
Can look at your entire career and advise you on various paths to take
Acts as an unbiased advocate for you
Will often connect you with people in different companies and industries to broaden your perspective
Okay, now you want a mentor - but what should you look for in a mentor?
One definition of a mentor is a "wise and trusted counselor or teacher; an influential senior sponsor or supporter. Thus, a mentor ought to be trusted, influential, and supportive. It's therefore important to find not just any mentor, but a good mentor who can help you through various challenges that you need help with. A good mentor should be able to:
Provide you with new ideas
Challenge you to be better than you are
Be vested in your career growth and success
Hold you accountable for things you say you want to accomplish
If you find a mentor who is not meeting the requirements, it is okay to stop the mentoring relationship and search for a new mentor who can meet your needs. It's your career, and a mentor is supposed to be an advisor. If their help isn't helpful, there is no reason to continue working with them.
šŖš½ In all cases, remember also that a mentoring relationship is just like any other relationship - it goes two ways. It would be best if you came prepared and should be willing to invest in conversation and learning so that you are not wasting your mentor's time. If you take personal responsibility for the success of your time together, you'll be much happier.
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book recommendation
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
I read this book in 2022 and it was probably the best book I read all year.
Both of the authors started seeing something going wrong on college campuses where speakers were canceled, students and professors were walking on eggshells, and rates of anxiety and depression were rising.
The authors saw these issues rooted in three terrible ideas that are increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesnāt kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people.
These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures. Embracing these untruthsāand the resulting culture of safetyismāinterferes with young peopleās social, emotional, and intellectual development. It makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life.
Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to promote the spread of these untruths. They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised, child-directed play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. They examine changes on campus, including the corporatization of universities and the emergence of new ideas about identity and justice. They situate the conflicts on campus within the context of Americaās rapidly rising political polarization and dysfunction.
This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.
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Written by
Jeff Perry
Engineering Career Coach
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