(A version of this article has been published in The Financial Express in December 2020)
2020 has been a unique year for young professionals.
The young generation today worldwide, have grown up in an environment with
lower chaos than ever before, and the security and trust in the lifestyle everyone
enjoyed– seemed to be only destined to get better. However, everything came to
halt when the pandemic hit, leaving a lot of professionals wondering about the
where their career is headed? These CAREERS (as opposed to a JOB) were always
meant to TAKE the passengers someplace, better, and more novel in every year or
two, right? This was the underlying assumption with most young professionals,
switching jobs if necessary, to hold onto this upward motion. The possibility
of that seems less likely these days. Not only has there been the lay-offs,
some faced pay-cuts, some faced unsurmountable targets set by the bosses, while
others faced a lack of work to show their value to the company.
So, this article looks at the word PROMOTION in new
light, a way that does not depend only what the Office thinks. Giving one the
freedom to design her own levelling up in life.
As Steven Pinker (linguist and psychologist) points
out, this is the most peaceful times the world has ever seen throughout
history. According to “Our World in Data”, in 2017, more people died of heart
conditions, and suicide than wars or homicides. This sense of security ushered
an era fueled by the economy of trust, where people trusted a print-out
hotel booking to travel to another country
(Airbnb), people trusted getting on a stranger’s car to reach
destination (UBER), or trust on someone unknown to deliver food from restaurant
to home without messing with it. Things could only get better. But suddenly we
faced a pandemic COVID19, that upended lifestyle all over the world. Suddenly
that quick trip to Bali seemed so much more difficult to fathom, even regular
office chitchats evaporated to make room for zoom calls, community hangouts
went out— making room for “who could speak the loudest” online.
As the pandemic increased its foothold all around the
world, it increased the disconnect with the immediate surrounding of colleagues
and classmates. Social media being a poor replacement— of the general sense of
relevance in society, that a steady job can give. With markets shrinking and
revenues dwindling in a lot of sectors, the question comes easily, how can one
POSSIBLY get a promotion in a year like this?
“The pre-crisis challenges for youth are now
amplified since COVID-19 hit. Without sufficient attention, our fear is that
this risks creating a ‘lockdown generation’ that could feel the weight of this
crisis for many years to come,” says Sara Elder, a lead author of the report
and Head of the ILO Regional Economic and Social Analysis unit.
Well, fair warning, if the organization is not on a
growth phase, or at least the function one works in, is growing, it IS
difficult for the organization to find room or budget to promote someone. But
there ARE things to do to still ensure a promotion, looking at it with a fresh
pair of eyes.
A regular promotion starts with a New Designation,
which immediately goes to the email signature, waiting for the new business
cards to be printed, all being the social symbol of one’s levelling up. With it
comes salary and other benefit increment from the organization, which
essentially is more freedom for the individual to spend or invest to her
liking. Also, of course a promotion means one now has more responsibility
towards the organisation, at times with more people looking up to her.
For someone working at the right place and having the
right set of responsibilities, these tough times may have been the place they
showed their mettle and are now well on their way to a raise. But people who
have not been dealt the right cards this year, there ARE things to do that can
have a similar effect on life, keeping life and career moving upward, although
coming from a different angle. Let us break down these characteristics one by
one.
1. New Designation (Social Symbol): If there is a specific topic that has always
been interesting to a person, she must have some knowledge and skills in that
area than others around her. Be it writing fiction, painting, mobile
technology, psychology, books and so on. There are niche groups online focused
on these things at places like Facebook. One can always take a more proactive
role one such group, and get an additional designation added. There are people
out there making new things, bold start-ups and steady youth organizations,
maybe people from the alumni network of one’s educational institutions, or
maybe a distant family member who could use some help.
One should be bold enough to go ahead and offer help, when
she sees she CAN help, go ahead, and help for a while, that can add a new
designation besides you current one.
2. Salary Increment: If the company is in no position to pay more, one can
ask for more responsibility in a potential gap area that needs some mending
with a concrete plan. Doing so would enhance her role and importance in the
organisation. Coupled with the clear discussion on a way for her to get a
raise, these steps are good for anyone with the ambition and situation to
pursue it. The same can be done outside office as well, dedicating one day a
week to a friend’s start-up. If someone is truly delivering something of value,
negotiating a pay should be of no problem.
3. Bigger team, new boss and new responsibility: Our young professionals were one day in school writing time and again that “man cannot live alone, humans are social animals etc.” and yet as we grew up, we increasingly started delegating our work to apps. A friend’s recommendation of a movie is cross checked with online rating, and a trailer review on YouTube, or sometimes even just because Netflix recommends it. And more and more it is seen that the apps are not that bad in their suggestion games. This resulted in us being less in touch with our family, those who would come to our rescue— if something really went wrong. This might be a good time to reach out to such friends and family. Most of them has at least one thing that needs some help. If the young professional finds the time to do it, it will mean now she is able to expand her shoulders, taking up new responsibilities, with a wider network acknowledging her quality and acting like a safety net.
4. Bonus point— READ more: The value of reading cannot be underestimate. One needs to read more and more. Dig deeper into the subjects that interest to come out with gold that immediately helps the people around, be it the office, or some family member. This is the young professional’s time to shine, taking good care of everyone, starting with herself.
The title of this article might have been a tad
bit misleading to some, but today, try to take a leap of faith, and try to see
everything with this new eye the Pandemic has given us. Everyone is in this
together, and when push-comes to shove, it is the time for the hero inside everyone
to come out. Take a stance, take care of yourself and start expanding yourself
to reach your ambitions.