What Happened to Having a Career?

Whether they’re coding software, filing legal paperwork, fixing air conditioners, or nearly anything else, US workers are feeling stuck. It may be up to their firms to redefine how to build careers today. 

Nearly two-thirds of workers, 65%, say they think career progress is an illusion, according to a survey by MyPerfectResume. Their organizations are offering more responsibilities, they say, instead of raises or recognition. A meaningful minority of workers, 20%, feel frustrated, another 20% feel burnt-out, and 13% feel trapped. “So many feel they’re so limited,” says Smriti Kangovi, managing consultant in Korn Ferry’s North America Technology practice. 

The latest data comes on the heels of similar results from surveys done over the summer. In a poll commissioned by The Wall Street Journal, nearly 70% of people—the highest level in nearly 15 years of surveys—said the American dream (if you work hard, you will get ahead) no longer holds true, or never did. The discontent was widespread across genders, political affiliations, ethnicities, and incomes.  

This broader sense of pessimism is particularly worrisome for many employers. An employee’s work engages them in part by giving them the confidence they can achieve their career objectives at the firms where they’re working. But how many workers actually feel that way today? “Everybody has to think that their effort will lead to something good for themselves,” says David Ellis, Korn Ferry’s senior vice president of talent transformation.

There will almost always be people who feel their careers should be progressing faster. And it’s in the nature of US businesses—even in boom times—for there to be fewer promotions, big raises, and plum assignments there are employees who want them, says Mark Royal, senior client partner for Korn Ferry Advisory.  

But there are a variety of reasons why employees might feel lost careerwise. The robust job market of three years ago is gone, replaced by an environment in which unemployment is low but companies have significantly fewer open roles. Organizations also have decreased the number of manager slots, which limits the availability of roles people can advance into. Even at firms that haven’t cut management layers, promotions are fewer and farther between than they were pre-pandemic, and raises are not robust. Numerous organizations have asked employees to return to the office full-time, increase their productivity, or both. At the same time, there’s talk about how AI will transform—or make unnecessary—thousands of different roles.  

Experts point to multiple ways employers can fight the malaise. Organizations need to make sure that their policies on raises and promotions are clear, known, and equitable, Royal says. Companies also can help employees understand that their careers can advance even without traditional milestones such as raises or promotions. For example, firms that have fewer management layers can highlight how individual employees have more autonomy and are getting skills and exposure that might not necessarily be available elsewhere. “What they offer is a different type of growth than the typical hierarchical progression,” Royal says.  

At companies where promotions and hiring are frozen, it’s critical for leaders to highlight that advancement opportunities are not gone forever. Experts say that leaders should give individual employees the resources to help them take little steps toward advancement, such as time they can use to take a training course. Changing the mix of work assignments can also help make employees feel more positively about their roles, Royal says, potentially giving them more work that they enjoy doing and less work they don’t. 

It can also be helpful for organizations to connect the firm’s mission to the values and missions that drive individual employees. That can be as simple as reminding employees what their work—no matter how big or small—is building toward. “If you are clear on the purpose of your work, you are better positioned to navigate and achieve success in an uncertain world,” says Guangrong Dai, senior director of research at the Korn Ferry Institute. Indeed, Anya Weaver, a Korn Ferry principal consultant, says that the most professionally fulfilled people she works with focus on their purpose rather than their particular position. “They’re more content, and they see more growth in what they’re doing each and every day,” she says. 

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Employee Experience capabilities.  

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