In the wake of the coronavirus-induced recession, huge numbers of people have or are set to face incredible uncertainty in their careers. It’s a sense of uncertainty that new research from Curtin University suggests is best faced with a proactive approach.
The study found that even in the most precarious of circumstances, we can take steps to reduce the risk and feelings of job insecurity that so plague our mental health and wellbeing. The findings emerged after surveying a few hundred workers, all of whom were on short-term, temporary contracts, none of which were being renewed. This resulted in all of those surveyed feeling, understandably, insecure about their future. The insecurity was not felt equally among the group, however.
“For some workers, the level of job insecurity increased as the contract got closer to expiring, whereas for others, insecurity did not increase at this time and we investigated why this difference existed,” the researchers explain,” the researchers explain. “By tracking these workers across several months, and measuring their experiences three times, we found those who took proactive steps to shape their career were the ones best able to cope with an elapsing contract.”
Proactive behaviors
These proactive behaviors are varied, and include things such as networking, career consultations, and skill development. Often, the most proactive people would work directly with their supervisor to secure access to ways to develop new skills, whether that’s via training courses or work assignments, with these skills then opening up future work opportunities.
“Workers who engaged in these proactive career behaviours in the face of an elapsing contract felt more in control of their careers, and hence were less insecure,” the researchers say. “Although we did not test whether these workers ultimately secured new jobs, other research shows that such proactive actions increase the chance of re-employment.”
The researchers believe that proactive mindsets not only help us to build new skills and make career plans, but give us a sense of control over our lives, and optimism about our future. By contrast, a more passive or reactive approach tends to harm our prospects and increase any feelings of insecurity.
Designing your life
A good approach to doing just that comes from Stanford academics Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, who take a fascinating, design led approach in their book Designing Your Life. They break the philosophy down into five simple things you can do to better design your life:
1. Be curious – this is a fantastic start point, and indeed Einstein himself famously said that he had no real talents other than passionate curiosity. Studies have shown that curiosity primes our brain for learning new things, so this is a crucial mindset to invoke from the off.
2. Try stuff – prototyping is a fundamental part of design thinking, and so it’s no surprise to see a request that we try and devise as many cheap and easy experiments to conduct as we can to test out our assumptions. Experimentation is a key part of organizational change and it should be a fundamental part of designing your life too.
3. Reframe problems – there are a number of very well known cognitive biases that can limit our thinking and restrict our choices. Indeed, studies have even shown that the way we frame things can play a significant part in whether we get started or procrastinate. By reframing our problems we can often look at situations in a new light and come up with much better solutions to them.
4. Know it’s a process – I’ve written a few times about the growing need for lifelong learning, and designing your life very much fits into this mold. There is no real end point and it is much less about the outcome than it is about the way you go about achieving it. This focus on process rather than outcome will allow you to gain something from every eventuality, good or bad.
5. Ask for help – Design and invention are increasingly collaborative processes, and designing your life is no different. Burnett and Evans advocate having an open approach, both to new ideas and insights you can receive from people about new directions, but also in terms of feedback from others on those ideas. People such as Wharton’s Adam Grant have long advocated the importance, and value, of giving of yourself, and this is very much in that ethos.
“In the last decade alone workplaces around the world have been transformed. For many these changes represent huge challenges, but it can also lead to great opportunity. The best thing we can be doing for young people – and anyone in fact – is empowering them to adapt to these factors and teaching them the skills needed to do so,” Burnett and Evans told me recently.
With change likely to be a growing presence in all of our lives, the basic design principles outlined above could prove invaluable in helping us to create the kind of life we want.
