The massive growth in all the sectors of the economy has brought with it lot many job oppurtunities and this has infact let to a considerable amount if labour turnover. As i look around me, i see a lot of people changing jobs, moving around or putting up papers. I see people moving for frivolous reasons or just for money.
If you ask them why are they leaving, they would say “Oh, I am getting a 200% hike in salary”; “Well I am jumping three levels in my designation”; “Well they are going to send me abroad in six months”.
Infact, our company was facing similar problems wherein every month, atleast one senior executive was leaving the company. I happened to discuss this with my Boss and he said
” Madhur, if you look around at all the people who are considered successful today and who have reached the top – be it a media agency, an advertising agency or a company, I find that most of these people are the ones who stuck to the company, ground their heels and worked their way to the top. And, as I look around for people who change their jobs constantly, I find they have stagnated at some level, in obscurity.”
He further gave me the example of Mr. Gopalakrishnan who succeeded Mr. Ratan Tata as Chairman of Tata sons Ltd., the holding company for many of the Tata blue chips like Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Voltas etc. Possibly he is the first Non – Tata person to head the Tata Empire.
So i asked him that shouldnt anyone change?? to which he replied that grass always seems to be greener on the other side. You should definitely change your job but whenever you make a move, make it for the right reasons.
I realiszed, in this absolute ruthless, dynamic and competitive environment, there are still no – short cuts to success or to making money. The only thing that continues to pay, as earlier is loyalty and hard work. Yes, it pays!
Sometimes, immediately, sometimes after a lot of time. But, it does pay. Does this mean that one should stick to an organization and wait for the golden moment? Of course not. After, a long stint, there always comes a time for moving in most organizations, but it is important to move for the right reasons, rather than the superficial ones, like money, designation or oversees trip.
No company recruits for charity. More often than not, when you are offered an unseemly hike in salary or designation that is disproportionate to what the company offers it current employees, there is always an unseemly bait attached. The result? You will, in the long term have reached the same level or may be lower levels than what you would have in your current company.
Today, i am also at a similar junture in my life where i have an irrestible offer and i am in double minds whether to change or not. Definitly they are giving more money but i dont want to change for money. Then i thought i am not happy in this organisations. While i was doing that self talk yesterday night, i took the pretext of unhappiness to leave my present organisation but then asked myself that what is this so called unhappiness? I have been working for so many years and yet there has never been a day when I am not unhappy about something in my work environment – boss, rude colleagues, fussy
clients etc.
I felt there is always something to be unhappy about. But, more importantly, do I come to work to be “happy” in the truest sense?
If I think hard, the answer is “No”. Happiness is something you find with family, friends, may be a close circle of colleagues who have become friends. What you come to work for is to earn, build a reputation, satisfy your ambitions, be appreciated for your work ethics, face challenges and get the job done.
So, the next time you are tempered to move on, ask yourself why are you moving and what are you moving into? You need to have a self talk with yourself.
An honest answer to these will eventually decide where you go in your career – to the top of the pile in the long term (at the cost of short -term blips) or to become another average employee who gets lost with the time in wilderness?
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I understand that stability is very impprtant. It gives a person a chance to grow within the company. It also shows to prospective employers that the person is relatively stable.
However, I would also like to bring about some negatvities in remaining on to a job.
We as Chartered Accountants have gotten so used to listening to whatver our seniors be it immediate seniors, partners of firms, etc that whenever a job that we think is appropriate for us, we approach these very people. With due repects to all my seniors, but we forget that our seniors require us and they tend to discourage us from leaving.
We, Chartered accountants as a breed ( if I may use that term) have become so passive in our approach to life that whenver something interesting and better comes up, we refuse to take the challenge head on. I do not discount the fact that some of our decisions may not be wrong, but then that it how we learn.
Therefore, I would like to suggest to my fellow CAs is to take some risks. But do analyse them properly.