Five ways to reset and recalibrate your career
1 Find your tribe, find your vibe, re-find your community
A 2019 study revealed that 42% of millennial women are more afraid of loneliness than receiving a cancer diagnosis. We’re living through a loneliness epidemic, despite being more connected than ever. But while the pandemic has exacerbated the difficulties of isolation for a lot of people, it has also shown us what community could look like. From coming together in support of Clap For Our Carers to using the Nextdoor app to connect with our neighbours, we found one another. Why don’t you take some of that energy back to work? With a culture so focused on the hustle and performative workaholism, we need to spend time making and maintaining meaningful relationships. Instead of sticking to the same three friends or having lunch at your desk, reach out to new people. Practically every industry has its own myriad organisations and networks through which you can connect with like-minded people, such as The Dots, STEM Women and Women In Journalism.
2 Demand more from ‘office culture’
We’ve been fed a diet of perks and packages for years, whether it’s ‘Free Lunch Fridays’ or that gym in the basement of your office. But with only 5% of companies offering free childcare next to 32% offering free food, something isn’t adding up. So what would actually make your work life easier? Meeting-free weeks, perhaps, or more communication channels with leadership? Could it be an entirely new hiring process, or greater disability support? Work out what you need and ask for it – you just might be surprised, because a happy employee is much more likely to stick around. If we start by communicating what we actually want to see from our businesses, we could help recast them.
‘ONLY YOU CAN BRING BALANCE INTO YOUR LIFE’
3 Develop your skills and passions
Did you discover a hobby during lockdown that transformed your life? Have you unleashed your creative genius or your inner athlete? Finding those skills and interests matters, and not just for lazy Sundays. It’s up to you to shape your career around what excites you, because no one else will do it for you. Office life can force us to conform, and it’s easy to forget the passions that drove you when you were younger. Take the time to reconnect with what makes you feel alive, and bring those things to work. Ask your boss if you can be involved in a project outside your usual remit, carve out time for training – or why not take a sabbatical to develop something totally different? If you know what you have to offer, you can show others what you’re worth.
4 Stay balanced
I heard a lot of people over lockdown saying, ‘It’s not working from home, it’s living at work’. They were sitting at one desk, in front of one laptop, all day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner – all without leaving the room. I’m guessing that these were the same people who’d stay at work until 9pm and check their emails in bed. Instead of complaining about your work-life balance, do something about it. Set a different routine and stick to it. Do you think best in the morning? Then do creative work first thing and take a break before getting down to emails. Does your day only end when you have a bath? Light those candles at 6pm and shut down your screen. Only you can bring balance into your life, so establish the rules that will make your job and your life work in harmony.
5 Work smarter, not harder
Perhaps you read the last point and thought ‘I just can’t fit all my work into that time, I have to work 10-hour days’. But productivity isn’t about working long hours, it’s about working smart hours. There are all sorts of practical ways to streamline your days, from diary management and clever list making to only going to meetings that are essential. Next time someone invites you to a 10-person meeting about a project you’re hardly involved in, ask them, ‘Do I need to be there, or could I read the notes?’ There’s a wealth of material to help you find your productivity needs. If you do all of that and you’re still working way past 6pm, then it’s time to speak to your manager, because something has to give – and it shouldn’t be your evenings.
My last piece of advice? Learn to switch off. This past year felt like one endless stream of content: social media feeds, emails, evening television, scans of the news… You owe it to yourself to listen to your body and learn to unplug. When we can’t fully switch off, we can’t fully switch back on. It’s our ability to relax, to be bored and to stop that enables us to be productive, creative and turn all the way up.