How to help an employee whose career has plateaued
Plateauing or coasting is a normal and familiar phase in many careers. Usually in mid-career, employees (and managers) can experience a levelling-out of their progress as a result of downsizing, restructuring, mergers, alliances, or plain boredom. Previously high-achievers seem to lose their zest, sparkle, and enthusiasm. They become disenchanted and frustrated. Over time, their morale and productivity decline. Here’s how you can help to revitalise the career of an employee stuck in a rut...
1. Understand why people plateau.
Plateauing can occur for several reasons:
- There are too few jobs to satisfy the number of competitors for those jobs. Those who miss out feel ‘dead-ended’.
- The employee’s ability does not match the job - lack of skills and aptitude, or an inability to respond to changing job requirements.
- Some are faced with the so-called ‘mid-life crisis’; or a sense of being trapped in an ill-chosen career choice.
- Some feel betrayed after having rejected other worthwhile life roles in favour of their current career.
- The extension - even abolition - of the mandatory retirement age results in some older workers becoming ‘trapped’ in upper-level positions.
- Increasing numbers of younger, highly-qualified employees progress too rapidly up the corporate ladder - only to be frustrated by a period of career stagnation.
Employees, too, can contribute to their own plateauing by:
- being less active than others in adapting to change
- displaying an inflated opinion of their actual work performance
- showing little interest in understanding their boss’s problem
- being unwilling to improve their work performance.
2. Be aware of the social and economic impact.
Lay-offs, mergers, and other cutbacks in staff contribute to plateauing. High unemployment, too, has reduced outside options for employees: they become stay-put and plateaued. The two-income family may also mean that the employee may not be able to afford to transfer to other employment. Fewer jobs through the removal of layers of management through restructuring and downsizing has also resulted in more plateauing.
The ‘baby boomers’ - those born between 1946 and 1964 - account for a major proportion of our working population; the number of higher management positions and others will not be sufficient to accommodate them. As a result, ‘baby boomers’ will have to adjust their expectation - usually downwards. No longer will a university degree (or two) guarantee advancement - or even a job.
3. Be proactive in dealing with the phenomenon.
Although you may feel inadequate in dealing with this corporate phenomenon, ignoring it won’t make it disappear. Alternatively, you can take a tough stance and demand greater productivity, an approach that will not work in most authentic cases. Or you can try to be understanding and offer assistance by considering one or more of the following options
- Help individual employees recognise that plateauing is a normal occurrence. Honest feedback can send clear signals to employees that their activities are important and that you are prepared to provide support to assist them over this period.
- Reduce the focus on promotion as a major indicator of success. Where reduced promotional opportunities lie at the cause of employee plateauing, organisations can emphasise alternative ways by which success can be measured:
- Provide opportunities for greater participation in setting goals and determining methods and procedures. Plateaued employees usually have a wealth of experience for the organisation to draw upon.
- Assign the staffer to train new employees and bring others up to speed.
- Devise a major project for the worker, with full autonomy, to show your trust and to provide new zest.
- Since plateaued employees are often bored, ensure they are given useful activities; avoid assigning duties and responsibilities that are clearly beneath them, just to keep them occupied.
- Change the structure of the organisation. Make modifications to create a more horizontal structure and establish additional responsible positions.
- Consider lateral promotions. If demoralised workers have little chance of promotion in your area, their skills and talents may be valuable in another area.
- Seek the employee’s input. Explore with the individual how the current job can be made more stimulating, without overstepping current parameters.
- Provide specialist, qualified counselling. Where necessary, this will help them overcome individual crises associated with career plateauing.
