A Groundhog Career: A tale of career traps and how to escape them

INTRODUCTION

How do we find work that fulfills us? Must we accept that our jobs will always be a burden? Is there anything we can do to improve our professional experience? Indeed, to what extent can we escape the feeling of being a prisoner of our work, and instead, search for a career that not only satisfies us but sustains and invigorates as well?

This book explores these questions. We examine why our motivations and ambitions for work have a profound impact on how we feel about it. We see what we can learn about the root causes of those who find themselves most disillusioned and contrast that with the ingredients for joy. For every example of someone we know who hates their job, there are others that are positively effusive. We ask what’s the difference and whether we can choose one over the other?

Our general disillusionment with work has increased over recent years. In many ways, this is counter intuitive. The world we experience today offers us so many more opportunities and choices. Most of us accept that the general standard of living and quality of life available to us today is much improved from 50 years ago. And yet, the evidence, as we shall see, points to greater levels of dissatisfaction with our professional lives.

We dedicate this book to finding, answering and, more importantly, sharing some ideas on how to change that.

Before we proceed further, let us address and dispel the myth of the most common explanation for high levels of work dissatisfaction. The supposed entitled expectations of Generation Z[1]. Recently, the idea that work should provide more meaning in our lives has received a lot of attention. The UCL professor Anthony Klutz is credited with coining the phrase ‘great resignation’ to describe the phenomenon of record numbers of people resigning their jobs in 2021 and 2022.[2] Attempts to explain the unprecedented levels included observations that there were generational shifts in regard to expectations about the role work plays in our lives.

Few of us would dispute that our lives have become faster, more hectic, more complicated over the past few decades. It is also fair to say that each generation has different work aspirations. The societal and economic context of 2024 is very different to 1984 and certainly 1954. Obviously, our outlooks and thinking are shaped in powerful ways by that context. In 1954, our parents’ expectations about work and what constituted a ‘good life’ were very different to how we think of them today. Work choices were relatively narrow. In the Western economies, there were essentially blue- and white-collar professions. The pinnacle of ambition was to get a job with a big company who ‘would look after you’ until retirement.

In 1984, the world of work started to benefit from new possibilities. Those of us who entered the workplace in the 80s started to imagine new possibilities, new destinations, both geographically and economically. We still tended to view the world of work as one where companies held most of the power. However, we began to see more choice. We started to imagine new possibilities and nuances for our professional lives. Artificial boundaries and limitations in organizations were eroding. We benefited from the growing consciousness that talent, merit, and capability should matter more than social status, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

The generation beginning their careers today enter a world transformed by technology and an era of prolonged relative economic prosperity. Their childhoods were shaped by globalization, lowering of class barriers, improvements in access to education, and parents who reframed professional aspiration from purely financial consideration to more altruistic possibilities. This is the first generation educated not just in a traditional classroom, but with real time access to the cumulative wisdom of humanity’s last 3,000 years. When we add to this the now extraordinary spectrum of professional choices available for them, it shouldn’t be a surprise that, generally, they have still higher expectations for the role work will play for them.

So, the reasoning goes, Gen Zs lofty expectations for well-paid work that allows them to blur work and personal boundaries while expecting to be absolved from the old organizational conventions of power and access is why we saw such unprecedented levels of job turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trouble is, this might be more generational judgement than fact-based assertion.

Gallup’s annual survey that tracks our collective relationship to work has largely stayed consistent over the past 30 years.[3] Around 60% of us find little meaning and take little fulfillment from our work and a staggering 20% say that it is the main reason they feel completely miserable. Another report published last year by UK’s leading HR professional body, CIPD, cited as many as 90% of us were disengaged with our jobs.[4] And finally, a report from Pew Research in 2023 shows that there is little reason to suggest that this is solely a Gen Z or Millennial dynamic. Pew found that 50% of Boomers were dissatisfied with their jobs versus 55% for the younger generations.[5]

The evidence we suggest, points to a much more pervasive and troubling phenomenon. Many of us have been conditioned to accept a degree of suffering in and sacrifice from work. We inherit this from our parents and grandparents—a deeply ingrained fatalistic outlook that is driven by dogged belief systems. From the Protestant work ethic of the 17thand 18th centuries, through the emergent labor movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, to every generation’s well-intended desire to help their children strive for financial security and social respectability, we are taught to approach our careers from a quantitative perspective.

We aim for a well-paid job. We balance effort for reward. We generally relate to employers, business opportunities, as things to ‘take advantage of.’ Implicit is a perspective of carrying a healthy skepticism about the world of work, a distrust for others’ intentions, and, perhaps most importantly, a single mindedness that pushes us to strive for ‘the most we can get.’ Think about how your parents advised you through your first professional years. The questions you fielded from family and friends. How were those questions shaped? How did they frame success?

This social conditioning is at the very foundation of why work is often a source of unhappiness in our lives. You reap what you sow. As explainable and even understandable as it is, if we look at our careers solely as a transaction then that is all we will get.

We think two things shape the answer to how we judge satisfaction with our careers, (1) the spectrum of opportunities the world offers and (2) our capacity to imagine ourselves achieving them. We have all moved with the times and shifted our perspectives. Gen Z may be at the leading edge, but Millennials, Gen X and Boomers, we have all adjusted expectations as well. We all expect more from work. We all have much greater choice about what we choose to do as a profession. Logically, therefore, we explain our increasing levels of work disillusionment with a growing consciousness that we have more and more choice. We look around and make conscious and unconscious observations. We see new possibilities and make comparisons between ourselves and others: “Look at all these new things I could do, others seem to be much happier with their work than I do, and wouldn’t it be great if I could do something for a living that made me happy.” Then, we make excuses or dismiss the observations as impractical or unattainable. In the process, the dark cloud that follows us grows a little bigger.

So, what is the secret to finding fulfillment? What do the roughly 50% of us who are content and fulfilled know that the rest of us don’t? And how do we join them? Someone should write a book about that….

We make a lot of choices throughout our professional lives. At some point, we all start to wonder if the superficial transaction layer is all there is. This need for some greater purpose is consistent with who we are as human beings. It is encoded in our DNA. Abraham Maslow, the celebrated American psychologist from the 1940s, theorized that we are pre-disposed to improve ourselves.[6] He offered the suggestion of a pyramid of increasingly sophisticated psychological needs. Once we conquer our primordial needs we seek affiliation, love, respect, and self-knowledge. In short, we start to struggle with the question: “Is this all there is?’

So, let us set out for you how we plan to tackle this challenge. First, we look at what happens when we get stuck in a one-dimensional career world. We explore how relating to work as a zero-sum game, as something to be leveraged and maximized can lead to some extraordinarily bad outcomes. Paradoxically, this is the path that may lead to levels of financial and material success but moral and spiritual bankruptcy. It ends up becoming a trap, a vicious downward spiral. We have referred to this as finding yourself a prisoner in a gilded cage.

We point out that we don’t do this randomly or without encouragement. There are co-conspirators. The world around us makes it complicated for us to separate our own needs from those around us. Society celebrates and pushes ideals of success that are distorted by consumerism, celebrity, status, and privilege. We are also conditioned to please others. In fact, this is one of the most powerful and intoxicating forces that drive us, particularly in our early careers. Who doesn’t want to make their parents happy and proud? And then there are our competitive instincts. We are aware that friends and colleagues are competing for something, so we throw ourselves into the game and we play to win.

As we attempt to bludgeon ahead in the professional world, we can leave some collateral damage. An important aspect of this is created by ‘leadership dystopia.’ The idea that our goal should be to attain leadership for its status and power. We unpack how this can not only lead us to cause others unnecessary damage but also how that it can create perverse consequences for us personally.

Finally, we offer some advice, ideas, lessons, wisdom. The goal of this book is to help unlock secrets to finding greater levels of fulfillment and meaning in your career. We firmly believe that each of us has the capacity to change our own fate. If you really want to feel more engaged, more fulfilled, more sustained by your career... there is a path for you to do that.

When we wrote our first book A Career Carol, it was born from a concern that business, leadership, and specifically career advice books needed reimagining. This emanated from shared frustrations that existing books seemed indulgent, dense, and academic. We have both enjoyed studying and writing academically, but we would be among the first to admit it can be insular and indulgent. It can sometimes be tough to read without an Enigma-like decoding device. Moreover, we were particularly conscious of how ‘generation now’ feel ignored. In our coaching discussions there was a distinct reluctance to slog through the text of classic and modern texts to find the one or two nuggets deeply buried within. The burning need, we felt, was to find a way to convey important, substantial, and relevant subjects in a more accessible, engaging, and practical format.

Judging by the reception A Career Carol received, we must have got something right! Our attempts to write something different, something that put storytelling at the heart of the endeavor resonated. We often extract greater wisdom from the best stories we’ve heard than from books supposedly designed to deliver business advice. Stories amuse, engage, and stimulate our imagination in ways that pure analysis and theories don’t. Consequently, we have set out once again in A Groundhog Career to stimulate right- and left-brain thinking. To put storytelling at the heart of the book, sharing a colorful and entertaining tale designed to illuminate the consequences and remedies for finding career fulfillment.

In Part I, we tell the story of Shey Sinope as he turns 30 years old. This is the same Shey we introduced you to in our first book. For those of you interested in Shey’s journey, this will read as a sequel or continuation of his professional journey. If, however, you are starting your Drs Schuster & Oxley investment with this book, do not worry. The fable will read as a simple stand-alone cautionary tale of the dangers of getting exactly what you think you wanted... only to discover that isn’t really want you needed. You will still want to buy the first book though. Trust us on that.

In the Part II, we provide an explanation and analysis of the key points. Another feature of our first book that is repeated here are the perspectives and voices from some distinguished contributors. The real stories, lessons, and advice from this impressive multi-generational group is once again a highlight of the book. Part II is designed to appeal to the left-brain thinkers with blink summaries and tools designed to help you think through the issues. We only share tools we have used and found helpful. In some cases, these tools were gifted to us by extraordinarily talented coaches, mentors, colleagues, friends, and teachers. One of their greatest powers was the generosity to share their wisdom without reservation. In writing this book we hope to again play some of those lessons forward in a refreshed format, accessible to a new audience.

Finally, before you return or begin your journey with Shey Sinope and Drs Schuster & Oxley, let us address a final question that may be lingering in your minds. On what basis do we share this story and advice? Well, you might look at our educations, our doctoral training, related research, and that might make you comfortable that we have a very good grounding in the behavioral science that underpins the challenges of navigating a fulfilling career. Or you might look at our respective 40-year careers in consulting, Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods (FMCG), commodity trading, and energy. We worked with some extraordinary leaders in the UK, USA, India, Middle East, and continental Europe. In the process, we like to think we helped those leaders and the businesses they led achieve some impressive results. Much of our work involved optimizing individual and team performance, and, like many professional sports coaches might also observe, the secret to extraordinary performance started with helping individuals become the best version of themselves.

Perhaps either of these explanations provides you with sufficient reassurance your time investment will be well made. However, we have entered this writing collaboration with a purpose and goal that is a bit different than simply pointing to our past training and experiences. After all, while the past teaches us many lessons, it is important we live in the now, deal with what’s before us, and embrace the constantly changing context. So, our aim with this book is to be more of a mentor or coach. Your personal thought partner or sounding board. The big distinction with this book is to think about things that are difficult to talk about. Things that we, over the years, have be conditioned to believe we must either ignore or deny. The doubts and insecurities we can’t be open about with society, community, family, friends, and work colleagues for fear of harsh judgment.

So, our goal is to create a safe space for us to discuss questions that may be difficult for you to find another outlet to work through. And, therefore, while it may sound strange, we think the main criteria for investing your time in this book, is that we might be surprisingly good listeners. A book, with words, that you read, but in the process, find time, space, encouragement, permission, practical tools, to say things, admit things, experiment with thoughts, that you otherwise might avoid.

However, failing all of that…. we think the next chapter in the Shey Sinope saga is an entertaining tale that will give you a handsome return for a few hours' investment. As we have mentioned before, our criteria for success in our writing is to produce something that is (whimsically) entertaining, and in the process, help at least one person become a better version of themselves. We hope that person is you.

[1] The four generations at work today – see notes

[2] The Great Resignation – see notes

[3] Employee Engagement Gallup – see notes

[4] CIPD report on employee satisfaction – see notes

[5] Pew Research report on generational work satisfaction – see notes

[6] Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – see notes