Red flags to indicate that your career has mired

You may be taking a licking in your career because of several causes, notable being an absence of adequate growth prospects, changing trends in your field of work and simple tedium.

Do you feel that your career has frozen or reached a dead end? The major indicators for this are:

•Every day, you suffer from Monday morning blues.

•You have been shouldering the same responsibility for years with no new augmentation.

•You have been switching jobs frequently but with no significant vertical growth or increase in emoluments.

•Individuals who joined your company after you have moved up the career ladder but you have stayed wherever you were then.

•For whatever reasons, you are no longer included in any brainstorming or decision-making loops.

•People – colleagues and subordinates alike – are reluctant to seek your views and assistance for any personal or workplace related issues.

•Important official mail is very rarely disseminated or marked to you.

•It has been ages that you attended a learning and development event; and acquired any new skill.

•You have been rather cantankerous about your work and management; and feel that you are being victimized.

Do you see the above red flags? If yes, it is an unpleasant development alright, but you can still get your career make headway and progress the way it should. Here is how you can do so:

•  Have a straight conversation with your superior:   Looking a problem straight in its face is the maiden step to dealing with it. If you happen to be stagnating for some time, you must try to obtain of various pecking orders in your company and then do some plain-speaking with your boss to find out actions and efforts necessary for you to make vertical progression. You could also make it known that you are geared up to take on testing and demanding tasks. Perhaps he may be ignorant of what you have been doing or your aspirations because you yourself have been cagey and not selling yourself. 

•  Seek what you want or are due to you:  You can always seek from your immediate boss guidelines and advice on aspects that you need to perk up. The administrative staff could also be requested to clarify on matters related to your salary increase. You ought to understand that if your overall performance is less vis-à-vis your colleagues, it is a matter of concern. If the allocations for pay increments were made and you happened to be one who has not got any, you should find out the reason for the same. If you are genuinely concerned about finding out the manner in which you could be more competent, operational and deliberate, you could well ask explore the opportunity for being transferred to another department to be acquainted with internal working mechanisms of your company. Acquiring new perceptions and outlooks will lead you to new ideas and stand you in good stead.

•  Be enterprising and venturesome:  You should not confine yourself to your specific responsibilities only; taking initiative to share the load of others, including your boss is recommended. Towards this end, you need to acquire more skills, fior which, attending learning and development programmes will help. You could also become a member of professional clubs where besides attending symposiums or presentations, you also play a key role in delivering lectures. Contributing to professional journals will also benefit you immensely to gain recognition.

•  Fine-tune your disposition:  Pessimism and unconstructiveness harm your career more than anything else. If you do not want your company to regard you as surplus to its establishment, you should not be grouching around unnecessarily. You must know that there is discontentment within you and take appropriate measures to preclude it. Should circumstances warrant moving somewhere else, you should take that bold decision and for all you know, you may land up in a job that is more satisfying without having to wait. 

If you feel that your career is mired, then a career change is perhaps defensible. You could prepare for it by getting into vigorous touch with your contact base in your field of work. Discussing the matter with the concerned human resources manager of your company to look at the likelihood of an intra-department transferal is also appropriate. But you must remember that it is you and you alone who should be at the wheels of your career.