Workers Face Obstacles in Their Careers
Workers face obstacles relating to their careers because of the rapidly evolving technologies and working environment. The advancement of individuals' careers may be hampered by other problems including mergers, acquisitions, and downsizing of businesses. Workers have recently begun to understand the need of being versatile and adaptable as they try to achieve their professional objectives. Resilience is the capacity of a person to bounce back from obstacles in their professional lives. For professionals, problems like buoyancy and calamities present both professional and non-professional issues. People's ability to learn from experience and achieve the career goals despite the challenges is an impact of resilience (Lent and Brown 2013, p.557).
Building Career Resilience
Currently, most organizations no longer actively involved in managing the career of their employees. It's up to employees to set right their career paths and manage them. Career resilience is considered a necessity to overcome the challenges and job security. According to Lloyd and Campion (2017, p.30), resilient employees are more satisfied with their jobs and can adapt to the changing working conditions. Moreover, resilient people are described as being committed, are in control of situations, and can overcome challenges. Individuals can develop career resilience through the following;
Adapting to Change
Change is part of a working environment. To be competitive, individuals must be able to adjust to the changing work environment. Moreover, striking a balance between personal development and job security can only be possible if people accept that change is constant in organizations (Cake et al. 2017, p.97). Moreover, personal strengths and abilities can be utilized to enhance positive personal development.
Optimism and Responsibility
When people take challenges as possible avenues for growth, their career objectives and goals seem attainable. Moreover, being responsible and taking control of every situation motivates people to move towards their career goals.
Emotional Intelligence
Creation of an effective work environment requires people to understand their emotions and emotions of their co-workers. Positive working relationships can only be achieved if workers can manage their emotions. Moreover, Coetzee and Potgieter (2014, p.72) argue that emotional intelligence dictates how people react to different situations thereby influencing the outcomes.
Work-Life Balance
Striking a balance between work and personal life is a key indicator of career resilience. As life changes, people must adapt to socio-economic and political changes in their life as well as the changes in work-related policies (Wenxi and Zhijin 2016, p.806). Establishing a balance between personal obligations and work-related responsibilities is critical for adaption to new changes and achievement life and career goals.
Managing and Responding Positively to Challenges of Life
The current life situations are challenging and may cause unnecessary tension and pressure to workers. However, individuals' ability to manage their emotions and remain calm under uncertainties and during challenging times is the key determinant of how they respond to challenges in workplaces and their personal life. According to Seibert, Kraimer and Heslin (2016, p.252), resilient people know how to manage their emotions in stressful situations, and they strive to remain calm and control the situation.
By appreciation what you have, individuals use their knowledge, skills, and physical resources to respond to the challenges life presents. Brown et al. (2011, p.81) argue that resilience requires people to be confident in their abilities. They need not doubt what they already possess but instead use such skills and resources to face the challenges and come up with appropriate solutions. An attitude of gratitude helps in improving the moods and energy directed towards solving given life challenge.
Positive thinking is a necessity when striving to overcome the challenges that life presents. Positive thoughts may help in creating a stress-free life by focusing on things that are meaningful to a person's life. Garcia et al. (2015, p.13) point out that positive thinking involves selecting positive things to do thereby ensuring one's attention and focus are on overcoming the challenge.
Managing and responding positively to challenges doesn't only entail appreciation of what is readily available and positive thinking but also stopping any negative self-talk. Negative thoughts may interfere with how individuals develop resilience and manage challenges since they are based on fears and nonfactual thoughts. Pessimism and negative thinking may slow down the momentum that people have towards solving problems and facing life challenges (Moffett, Matthew and Fawcett 2015, p.39). Therefore, eradication of negative thoughts is a better way of ensuring a positive response to challenges.
Since life challenges vary from time to time, individuals must seek to understand the reasons that led to the occurrence of such situations. Although most situations may be out of the control of people, understanding their cause will be important in managing the challenges (Arora and Rangnekar 2014, p.205). For instance, employees may not control firms' decision to lay off their staff, but by understanding the reasons leading to the layoff, workers can respond positively and manage the situation.
Conclusion
With the current uncertainties and insecurity in the job market, career resilience is a necessity for employees. Managing one's work life and achievement of career goals are issues that every worker must focus on. Moreover, responding to the life challenges that emanate from both work environments and social life development of resilience in one's life. As people strive to adapt to the challenges, positive thinking, and appreciation of individual's current situations can help in building resilience and responding positively to challenges.
Reference
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Brown, S.D., Lent, R.W., Telander, K. and Tramayne, S., 2011. Social cognitive career theory, conscientiousness, and work performance: A meta-analytic path analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(1), pp.81-90.
Cake, M.A., McArthur, M.M., Matthew, S.M. and Mansfield, C.F., 2017. Finding the balance: uncovering resilience in the veterinary literature. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, 44(1), pp.95-105.
Coetzee, M. and Potgieter, I.L., 2014. Mediating effect of self-esteem on the career self-management and career resilience of early-career staff in the business management field. Southern African Business Review, 18(2), pp.65-82.
Garcia, P.R.J.M., Restubog, S.L.D., Bordia, P., Bordia, S. and Roxas, R.E.O., 2015. Career optimism: The roles of contextual support and career decision-making self-efficacy. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88, pp.10-18.
Lent, R.W. and Brown, S.D., 2013. Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span. Journal of counseling psychology, 60(4), p.557.
Lloyd, C. and Campion, D.P., 2017. Occupational stress and the importance of self-care and resilience: focus on veterinary nursing. Irish Veterinary Journal, 70(1), p.30.
Moffett, J., Matthew, S. and Fawcett, A., 2015. Building career resilience. In Practice, 37(1), pp.38-41.
Seibert, S.E., Kraimer, M.L. and Heslin, P.A., 2016. Developing career resilience and adaptability. Organizational Dynamics, 3(45), pp.245-257.
Wenxi, L. and Zhijin, H., 2016. The Effect of Career Resilience on the Relationship among Role Stressors, Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention: The Positive Factor in School-to-work Transition. International Journal of Psychology, 51, p.806.
