Signs Your Career May Be Stagnating

Corporate work-life can be very unpredictable and demands constant performance and keeping on your toes. You may find yourself lagging in the rat race if you don't watch out.

Following are some signs or rather warning signals that your career may not be exactly looking up.

Sign 1:   You are doing the same things day in and day out. Work has become drudgery and you are going through the motions mechanically.

When you are not enjoying your job, not growing or learning, you are at a professional dead end. Monotony and routine are part of the corporate work-life, but within the work structure and your job profile, you must enjoy what you do. You must have some scope for value addition to your knowledge and skills. In plain words, your career must be going somewhere. If you have reached the end of the road, better watch out!

Sign 2:  People reporting to you are now either in the same level, or are reporting to other people. A sure-shot sign that you are stagnating in your job is, when your juniors get upgraded to your ranks or get their reporting structures changed. It indicates the lack of faith management has on you. So you are not growing, everybody else is.

Sign 3: Other colleagues are being selected to undertake key assignments and projects. When opportunities for proving your worth in the organization arise, and other names crop up instead of yours, it is a sure-shot danger signal. Just being involved in your job responsibilities is not enough; you must have opportunities for performing in diverse, cross-functional assignments.

Sign 4: There are talks of restructuring and “trimming the fat” in the organization, and your name has cropped up. In order to survive in a tough economy, most organizations routinely evaluate and restructure departments. Mostly support functions are the first ones to be hived off or outsourced to a third party. If you are in a support function like administration, tele-calling, market research, HR, or IT support, be prepared to face the axe, if your department is seen as extraneous or non-effective. 

Sign 5:  No significant contribution has been made by you to either the company bottom-line, or towards increasing the operational efficiency of any department or process. If you are being seen as a non-performer, be prepared to face the axe soon. No organization is willing to tolerate non-performance or slackness, and people who are under-performing are seen as deadwood.

Sign 6:   It had been years since you have learnt a new skill or updated your qualifications. In today’s dynamic corporate scenario, it is not only preferable, but rather vital that you keep updating your skills and knowledge. Multi-tasking is a reality now, and for that, you need to learn continuously. If you are still sitting complacently with outdated skills, then it is warning bells for you.

Sign 7:  He was satisfied reporting to office on time, doing the work assigned to him, and leaving the office at 6 p.m. Such work behavior was acceptable even a couple of decades back, but in today’s 24/7 work culture, you need to be totally involved in your work. When deadlines are near, and projects need to be completed on time, you cannot work by the clock.  If you are uncomfortable working long hours, you can opt to work from home. But working by stipulated office hours is a thing of the past.

Also, if you are passive at work, doing only what is expected out of you, you might as well give up all hopes of career advancement. Fortune favours the brave, and the corporate world favours those with initiative and drive.

Want to know what steps to take to reverse the downturn in your career? Read more on https://www.educba.com/10-signs-your-career-may-be-stagnating/