Professional Death

PROFESSIONAL DEATH Author JP Vijaykumar Date Sept 30th 2006 When there is CHOICE, I want the best. In a competitive world only the best can survive. The symptoms of professional death: You are dying out from your profession, when You don’t feel like working. You are not interested in your job. You start hating your job. You hate to report to an unprofessional boss. Your work becomes dull and monotonous. Your input in your job becomes zero. Your efficiency is at it’s low. You are hanging on to your job as you had no alternative. Your job is not keeping you busy. And the like. Over a period, if these symptoms are left unchecked, you become inactive and unproductive. You can not contribute any value to your professional skills. Slowly you lose interest in work. Your efficiency, creativity and quality in work deteriorate. You become inactive and lethargic. This professional inertia / inactivity drives you nowhere. Your skills and expertise become obsolete and unwanted commodities. What is professional death? You lost interest in - work/ career goals/ updating professional skills. You became unproductive, inefficient and inactive. You lack competence to professionally survive your job. What are the causes / where the problem lies? You are doing the same job, day in and day out. Your job is not keeping you busy full day. You hate looking at the watch every minute. You are not given the assignment you requested/ are interested. You are given an assignment against your wish. You were not given good raise nor promotion you asked. Your skills and knowledge are underutilized/unutilized. Your work is not recognized nor rewarded. You hate working with / among supremacists. You are bullied/ harassed.

QUOTATIONS TO COMBAT PROFESSIONAL DEATH Try to get what you like, otherwise try to like what you get – G. B. Shaw. The breed of a man or woman is well expressed by the way, how they behave in a quarrel – G. B. Shaw. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war - George S. Patton. Ours is to work. The results will take care of themselves – Swami Vivekananda. To gain something, lose something – Bhagavadgeetha. Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Never by haughty to the humble; never be humble to the haughty - Jefferson Davis. Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last – Samuel Johnson. To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing – Elbert Hubbard. He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool...shun him. He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is willing...teach him. He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep...awaken him. He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise...follow him. -- Chinese Proverb The wearer only knows, where the shoe pinches - proverb. Never be before the boss, behind a donkey, you will be kicked. If life is a bed of roses, my skills will provide me protection from the hidden thorns. I wanted to be the CEO of our company, but I am a software engineer. I will compromise. How to combat professional death? Be proactive in troubleshooting, work efficiently, document your achievements and publish your professional findings, actively participate in forums and keep your skills constantly challenged. Proactively monitor the systems and suggest ways to improve the performance. Share your knowledge and expertise with colleagues and mentor juniors. Compete with your peers. Take pride in what you are doing. Make your job more interesting and challenging. Love your job. Work is worship. Anything becomes impossible when done with reluctance. Don’t measure your skills and expertise with what you get. Show the edge in your work and you will be definitely rewarded at the right time. Recognize your real potential and tap your energies. List out your professional goals, strive to achieve your goals. If your work is not recognized, project your accomplishments at every opportunity. Unless you project your accomplishments, how do I know of your accomplishments? Take a deep breath. Face those, who bully / harass you. If not avoid them. But don’t succumb to bullying/harassment.

You leave WHAT NEXT attitude. Define your professional and career goals. Work your way to achieve your goals. Still you don’t like your job, look for another job.

Be Practical Life becomes dull, when you had no professional challenges. We become uninterested and lethargic. This should never happen, if you want to survive (in) your profession. Imagine, you are a mountaineer. You scaled all the mountains in the world including Mount Everest. SO WHAT NEXT? You are left with nothing to scale? Scale yourself. Is it a syndrome to long for new and interesting assignments/challenges day in day out? You may not be working on challenges everyday. Your assignments are not appealing nor interesting. Everyday is not a Sunday. Time is running eternally. Change is inevitable. If a commodity is under utilized or unutilized, the commodities’ utilitarian value decreases. Your professional skill is a commodity. If you utilize it, you become an expert and survive the competition. You under utilize / unutilize it, you lose the competition. If your car is sitting in the garage for a long period, it catches rust and becomes useless. So are your skills. Over a period, if you show no interest nor creativity in your work, you will be side tracked, your juniors will bypass you, and you may be fired. Your table and chair are having more experience in the project than you, what is the difference, if you are non creative, unproductive, inactive and inefficient. Like the economic theory, “wants are unlimited, if one want is satisfied, another want will replace it”, for a real professional, “goals are unlimited, if one goal is accomplished, another goal will replace it. When there is no CHOICE, I will live with what I get. Be your own mentor, self motivator or anything in combating the professional death. Do or die, survive your profession. After all, it’s your job.

Define your goals. Set deadlines to achieve your goals. Having goals without deadlines is as good as not having goals. Do your homework. Take your profession seriously. Pursue your profession like a penance and reach zenith.

Be proactive in harvesting your skills to meet the demands of your job. Whatever you are working on, be creative and productive. Make your job interesting, appealing, challenging, thrilling and all other adjectives. Prove your mettle. Survive your profession with confidence and comfort. All these observations, quotations, suggestions and advice are part of PLAN A, to improve your professional life. PLAN B is your decision. In a world of uncertainties, I can only count on my skills.