Tristan has one question for you – are you treating your job like a marriage? An email Tristan received from L. Michelle Smith, an amazing author, speaker, and executive coach, prompted this tip. She also gave some points on what treating your job like a marriage looks like!
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TRANSCRIPT
Tristan: What’s going on, Living Corporate? It’s Tristan, and I want to thank you for tapping back in with me as I provide some tips and advice for professionals. I have one question for you, are you treating your job like a marriage?
So last week, I got an email from L Michelle Smith, an amazing author, speaker, and executive coach. In the email, she posed that very question. She also gives some points on what treating your job like a marriage looks like, including:
Discussing looking into other positions like it is creeping, and that not looking around is an act of righteousness. You only share company-related posts on LinkedIn as if sharing other content is unfaithful. You won’t entertain recruiters and interview like it’s an extramarital affair. You treat your current position as if you have pledged until death does you part.
Does any of that sound familiar?
Often, we build unhealthy, one-sided relationships with our jobs that only benefit our employer. This mindset allows your employer to reap all the benefits of your loyalty with little to no requirement of reciprocating it. We have to remember that our relationship with our employer is purely transactional, you provide services for which they provide pay and benefits. That type of relationship shouldn’t bar you from looking at positions with other companies or feeling like you’re cheating on your employer if you go on interviews.
When we begin to value the company’s brand over our own, we tend to lose sight of the value we bring to the company. This leads to our hard work often going unrecognized and unrewarded, except for those industry-standard 2% raises. You owe it to yourself, your career, and your pay range to make external connections and court external opportunities to understand what your value is on the market. By doing this, even if you don’t take the external positions, you develop a pipeline of potential opportunities in case you ever need to jump ship. You also will have a better understanding of what type of positions you qualify for and how much you really deserve to be paid.
At the end of the day, companies will always do what is in their best interest, and we should follow suit. People have left actual legal marriages for less.
If you’d like to check out more from L Michelle Smith, you can check her out at www.lmichellesmith.com for more information!
This tip is brought to you by Tristan of Layfield Resume Consulting. Check us out on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @layfieldresume or connect with me, Tristan Layfield, on LinkedIn.
