Comparing careers – Photo credit: http://3.bp.blogspot.com
Are you guilty of comparing your career to everyone else’s around you? Do you look at your co-worker who just scored a gleaming promotion with envious eyes, resenting their success? Or are you the silent Linked In lurker checking out all your college friends’ profiles, measuring up against their accomplishments?
We live in a world of comparisons. We don’t just want to keep up with the Jones, today’s culture teaches us to beat the Jones, buy their house, take their car, holler at their friends, all the while trying to keep our FICA scores high and blood pressures levels low.
After all, it must be greener in the next corner office right?
My $0.05: Comparison and competition in the workplace can be beneficial to some extent, as long as it’s healthy. You want to be able to emulate positive or successful behaviors, and avoid damaging ones. You also want to be able to assess whether you’re at the right compensation level, or need to improve in certain areas.
However, as I like to say, there’s a price to pay for every career. Avoid making hasty assumptions about a successful colleague or higher-up, at the risk of diminishing your own accomplishments. One way to avoid this dangerous pitfall is simply to ask! Ask that brilliant colleague how they achieved success, or send a note to the partner and inquire if they can be your mentor.
The grass is not greener in the next corner office, it’s only busier!
What do you think?
The Corporate Sis.
I agree healthy comparison can sometimes lead to motivation or just looking at the blueprint for where you want to be. But when you compare out of envy that is not good. I say take the good and see how you can apply it and see the bad and try to avoid it.
Hi Zena, absolutely! I like to look at what role models and successful people are doing to improve my own performance. However, there is a thin line between feeling inspired and starting to envy the other person and feel and for ourselves. As I like to say, you never know the price people pay for their career, or pretty much anything else in their life. It’s a hard lesson I’m still learning. Thank you so much Zena for your comments and your support, I really appreciate it!