Sometimes we can get into a position at work where we feel very comfortable and would be quite happy to stay in this role, with this company and keep things the way they are. Not everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder and some people find a position they are comfortable with an dare happy to leave it at that.
The problem these days is the same problem that has always existed when you work for someone else: there will always be decisions made that affect you that you have no control over.
Companies get sold.
Businesses go out of business.
People get laid off.
Jobs get moved to other countries.
Positions become redundant with new technology.
There are lots of reasons why getting too comfortable can cause you grief when suddenly the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and you weren’t expecting it (when is it every expected!?)
Back in 2000, I got laid off when the company I was working for went out of business. I worked in sales and should have seen it coming since we weren’t making enough money to stay afloat but I really figured things would turn around and that in the meantime the owners would have enough money and patience to keep funding us until that day came.
They didn’t.
They pulled the plug and about 30 of us lost our jobs.
I had actually thought about looking for a new job as I was getting a bit bored with the job but then my sales really picked up and suddenly I was happy again! Things were going really well for me personally for a few months and then suddenly, I was out of a job and was forced to look for a new one.
Since then I’ve become a big fan of cliches like “expect the unexpected” and “the only constant is change.”
In this case, I’d been with the company for 1.5 years and had just started getting comfortable. I know a guy who’d been with the same company for over 20 years, the only company he’d ever worked for in fact. He recently changed jobs to do something different and because his old employer had experienced a slowdown that had affected him personally since he was only working a few days a week.
I’m sure over the past 20 years he’d thought many times that this was the company he was going to retire with. At some point over the past year or so, it must have dawned on him that he needed to do something different and do something he may not have done in 20 years: search for a new job.
Getting comfortable at a job is great if you’re happy with what you do and the people you work with but as long as you’re working for someone else, your ultimate fate is always in someone else’s hands.
