Stuck on a Career Plateau

by Surajit Sen Sharma ShareThis Copyright 2011 HRCrossing - All rights reserved

http://www.hrcrossing.com/article/270059/Stuck-on-a-Career-Plateau/
Employees, especially those who continue to work for the same organization for a long time and those who belong to the core of an organization, often reach career plateaus. To people working in human resources jobs, they present a special class of challenge that is hard to tackle without active cooperation from the affected person. However, more often than not, an employee stuck on a career plateau refuses to recognize that he or she has been trapped by a career barrier and will refuse help at its very mention.

By definition, a career plateau is a point in the career of an employee where the possibility of vertical promotion within the official hierarchy becomes very low or absent altogether. When faced with someone on a career plateau, the human resources professional must determine the opportunities for lateral growth that exist for the concerned employee. Then, he or she needs to select and present acceptable options to keep the trapped employee engaged and on the move. When dealing with employees stuck on career plateaus, those in human resources jobs have three principal tasks to perform: 1. Preventing the stagnating employee from becoming ineffective. This involves convincing the employee that stagnation doesn't necessarily mean failure and then directing him or her toward any avenue for personal development and growth that exists.

+ Enlarge Employees who have worked at the same job for a number of years often find themselves frustrated when they reach a plateau.

2. Integrating all relevant career-related information so that problems can be anticipated and treated as early as possible. To carry out this function, a thorough and effective performance appraisal system is necessary. 3. Managing frustrated employees and others who have become ineffective through stagnation. Open communication between the stagnating employee and people in human resources jobs is essential to this function. Five Effective Strategies for Dealing with Employees Stagnating on Career Plateaus This critical issue needs to be handled carefully by human resources professionals. Stagnating employees often refuse to budge and allow themselves to be overtaken by frustration. The immediate absence of opportunities for vertical advancement also prevents human resources professionals from instilling encouragement. Five simple strategies for dealing with the situation are: 1. Provide alternative means of recognition. The stagnating employee can be given special assignments and tasks of special importance, like training new employees, representing the organization to others, or participating in brainstorming sessions. 2. Develop ways to make current jobs more satisfying. This can be attained by creating competition on the job and personal rewards.

3. Revitalize through reassignment. Systematically switch the stagnating employee to different positions at the same level that can be handled given his or her core skill set. 4. Use self-development programs. Instead of preparing employees who have reached career plateaus for future jobs, prepare them to perform their present jobs better. 5. Change managerial attitudes. Managers and human resources professionals should never give up and start neglecting the stagnating employee. What to Do When You Realize You Have Reached a Career Plateau If you are stuck on a career plateau and have been able to recognize it, you should start to move immediately to free yourself of career barriers. Possible strategies for breaking free of stagnation include the following: Create your own personal mission statement and decide where you would like to be. Start taking responsibility for your own direction and growth, and avoid placing your hopes in an organization-provided solution. Constantly work to broaden your skill set; seek to enhance rather than advance. Talk with people who are already in the job roles you desire and ask for suggestions on how to proceed to their level. Set realistic short-term goals that will move you toward your ultimate goal.

At the same time, while continuing in the same organization: Always keep in mind that while your performance at your job is important, you have reached the phase where interpersonal performance is critical. Align your behavior, rights, and values with the company's values, goals, and objectives. Do not provide problems. Offer positive solutions, and take time to think through issues before offering suggestions. Be a team player, and put the spotlight on the group's efforts. Approach everything you do with a positive attitude, and be sure that each thing you do makes a difference, regardless of appreciation.

People in human resources jobs should always be aware of career plateaus and levels where good employees can get caught and start to stagnate. As an employee, one should always be aware of career plateaus and set strategies to avoid their grip.

Career Paths and Career Plateaus

http://www.jposc.org/career_management/content/career_advice/career_plateaux-en.html
UNDP JPO Service Centre

What is a Career Plateau?

Many people experience the situation at one point during their career of becoming 'stuck' with little or no movement up the career ladder, either for professional or personal reasons. The main cause of this is usually the pyramidal structure of organizations, which has fewer positions than aspirants at each higher level of the organizational ladder. The way most United Nations organisations are structured is a good example of this. The 'plateauing' of one's career is often accompanied, and thus identified, by feeling of boredom, frustration, tension, loss of enthusiasm, lack of team effort or lack of commitment. With this in mind, the following information aims at raising awareness and understanding of career plateaus, in order to assist staff to better manage these professional challenges. A career plateau is:

The point where the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is very remote;

The point where there are few internal opportunities for advancement;

A period in which an individual's learning rate does not improve;

A time of perceived or actual professional stagnation.

Different Kinds of Career Plateaux

Structural Plateau When one has progressed to a point where the organizational structure prevents him or her from moving up, due to non-availability of vacancies in higher grades. This happens to most of us sooner or later. Content Plateau When one has mastered the job and there is no longer a sense of challenge in the current position. Contribution Plateau When one has ceased growing and searching for learning opportunities to develop competencies and add value, becoming unable to respond to changing situations or to keep up with technological changes. Individuals have significant control over the forces that create contribution-based plateau; if one lets this happen, his or her value will decline rapidly. Damaged Reputation Plateau When critical behaviours or events put a temporary stall on career progression. Sometimes these may be self inflicted, sometimes by association with a particular department, supervisor or mission, and sometimes a

combination of both. However, it is important to understand that reputation can vary over time for the same individual and that positive reputation can be restored. Life Plateau When one experiences a loss of identity, direction, meaning or self-esteem, or when one undergoes self-doubt in his or her life, not just in the job. In many ways this is the most serious plateau, especially when combined with working in a post conflict context.

Strategies for Dealing with a Career Plateau

The strategies for dealing with a career plateau, whatever the kind, revolve around two main actions: reflection and reassessment. Restructure your view of success Explore ways to feel successful on the job apart from 'moving up', such as lateral moves, taking on new and different assignments in an existing job, going more in-depth in your area of expertise or even changing your working area as a whole. Manage expectations Let go of the notion of regular promotions and instead concentrate on your job satisfiers. Enrich the status quo: seek out a special challenging assignment, such as a special project, additional task, covering someone's duties while he or she is away (job rotation), or committee work. Seek a career move Pursue a change within the organization, seek a geographical move to a new Duty Station or, perhaps, to a different organization. Move sideways (consider a cross-training) to find excitement and challenge through a new environment. Explore new learning Return to school, take training (IT, managerial, technical, supervisory, etc.), explore a sabbatical to develop a skill, register for a degree/non-degree/certificate programme, do a cross-training, acquire or perfect a UN language (in-situ, intensive study or self-study, individual tutors or CD-ROMs), maintain or expand your understanding of trends in your field (which can be done though effective networking or mentoring). Manage your reputation 1. Identify the origin of your damaged reputation: is it self-inflicted, related to a particular department, supervisor or mission, or a combination of both?

2.

Confront the origin of your bad reputation. Is it based on true events or made up? If made up, find a way to ensure that the truth is known.

3.

Assess your own behaviour and/or that of your department, supervisor or mission if necessary. Is there anything you can do to avoid the critical behaviours or events from re-happening?

4.

Take accountability for your actions and for the actions of your department or mission and make a commitment to improve.

5.

Counteract your damaged reputation with positive and constructive acts and behaviours on a continuous manner.

Find your balance Find time for yourself and focus on the positive aspects of your life and on what makes you happy. Find new things or experiences to be excited about. Reassess your goals and the plans you have to achieve them; are you on the right path or does it need some readjustment?

Career Plateaus and Taking Control

Remember that, as with most aspects of career development, being in a career plateau does not mean the end of the line. The individual is largely responsible for his or her own career path, and recognizing that you may be in a career plateau is the first step in making the necessary professional changes or adjustments in your life.

Seven Types of Career Plateaus

By Markus Taylor Ads by Google

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The career plateau is the point in a career where the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is very low. Employees often experience this plateau at mid-career. Some people may experience the career plateau because they have no desire for future promotion. They may enjoy their current jobs and do them well but be reluctant to take on additional responsibilities. Others may have plateaued because of poor performance. Still others find there is simply no place to go: There are no openings at higher levels. The fact that an employee has plateaued may say nothing about desires or performance. Here are Six examples of employees, who may have reached their Career plateau.

1. "Window Watchers" Could be workers who have reached their plateau because of slack demand for labor or because of poor performance. Japanese whitecollar excess workers are called madogiwazoku, or "window watchers," because they have little to do but stare out the window. They may be assigned to lawn or maintenance work. 2. "Shelf Sitters," Can be Executives whose careers have stagnated and who have been "put on the shelf" in make-work, dead-end positions. These workers could be the executives of today, waiting to be laid off, or replaced as their Corporations are now deemed failures. 3. "Potential Stars" Learners have high potential for advancement, but are now performing below standards. Trainees or employees recently promoted into new positions which they have not yet mastered, and the Company have no time to wait for results, are good examples. 4. "Stars" Stars that did perform well in the past, but as economic conditions change, there experience and knowledge, is part of the old economy rather then the new. 5. "Solid Citizens" Solid citizens are employees, who have good current performance but little promotion potential, who do their tasks well, but are considered more on the positive side of their career plateau. These could be employees, who keep the ship running, but do not steer it. Not Leaders but coordinators, and middle managers. 6. "Deadwood" Poor performers who have little or no chance of advancing inside the organization, stagnant without ideas and basically around because there may be no where else to go. This is typical of mid-career employees, who may have been a "Star" or even a "Solid Citizen" in the past. But perhaps loyalty, or the lack of motivational Management from the top, created the "deadwood" employee.

7. "Window Dressing" Employees hired or promoted based more on their race or ethnic identity, then their performance. They could be symbols of how the company progressed in the era of correctness, during the "boom" years. Now, they need to perform, rather then be a symbol of the companies "correctness." There are some interesting issues regarding these differing Career plateaued employees, often they are the first to go, in severe economic conditions. But it may not be their fault that they have become expendable. Many are happy in their positions, and do not seek promotion, only security. Others are "passed" on, because there is simply no promotional prospects in the company. Other Employees may have relevant skills to help Corporations face this economic crisis, rather then skills that were need in the previous "bubble economy." So appraisals should be made on what each employee can offer today, rather than what they did, yesterday. Brings you International Academic recognition for your previous academic, and life experience in the form of a degree. The Asian European University assess your experience using the Internationally recognized APEL method. For a complimentary assessment to see if you qualify for an International Degree: http://www.asian-europeanuniversity.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Markus_Taylor
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