The Career Consigliere

Episode 37: Extended Stays with One Organization

• America's White Collar Wise Guy • Episode 37

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Every organization has that person that's been around for 40 years.  They're an expert, they know everyone, and they're usually pretty well-respected.  But is this a good thing?  Could you be missing out by not playing the job market and testing the waters somewhere else?  

Today's episode covers all sides of what happens when a person has an "extended stay" with one organization: the good, the bad, and the thought-provoking.  Take it all in and use today's content to help you figure out what's right for you, and your career.

Enjoy!

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Whaddaya hear, whaddya say?  Welcome to episode 37 of the Career Consigliere podcast: your no frills, no BS forum for navigating the corporate job scene.  We’re back with you once again for what we hope to be a highly informative and engaging half an hour, or so!  Today, we’re going to focus on a topic that a good many of us can probably relate to:  staying in a job or organization too long.  Most human beings are creatures of habit, I know I definitely am, and if you like me enough to be listening to this, we just might have this in common.  It can be easy to fall into habits and stick with one role, one company, or even both for decades on end, and lots of interesting things happen when you do – some good, some bad – and we’re going to talk about what happens on all sides.   Should be an interesting one today, so podcast land:  let’s do it!

Let’s acknowledge right away that the title of this episode could be a bit misleading:  staying with one job, or one company, or some combination of both for a long time is not NECESSARILY a bad thing.  It really depends on what your goals are and what you want from your career.  In fact, sticking around in one spot brings its share of benefits to both you as the employee, and to the organization.  

For one, the longer you stick around, the more you’re going to know.  You’re going to know all the names and faces, you’re going to know the evolution of how certain aspects of the job and the company got started, and how things got to where they are today.  And because you’ve been around, chances are you’ll be branded as a very credible source of information:  “You’ve got a question about XYZ process?  Go talk to Frank:  he knows that inside and out, in fact he built the infrastructure himself!”  You’ll eventually get to a point where you’re seen as the all-knowing subject matter expert in a certain area, and that’ll really help give you a good reputation throughout the place, and in a lot of cases, also buy you some job security.  The more critical knowledge and information you have living on your hard drive, and in your brain, you become more valuable and harder to replace.

And then, of course, there’s the people aspect.  If you’ve been at one organization for 10-15 years, chances are you’ve seen A LOT of people come and go, and you probably have had some level of relationship with most of them.  Your reputation for being a knowledgeable and credible expert in your particular area is going to almost automatically earn you respect from the less experienced colleagues around you.  They’ll come to you with questions or for help on certain things, and they’ll actually admire you in some ways:  your knowledge and tenure will almost make you a miniature “celebrity” of sorts throughout the company, and you’ll be surprised just how much of a premium people will place on your time and what you have to say.

I’ve worked with several people like this during the course of my career.  Those “lifers” – they started with the company when they were 20 years old, and never left.  Some of them rose through the ranks and made it into leadership, and some of them were happy just doing the same old thing for all those years.  One isn’t necessarily better than the other:  it’s all a matter of what you want and what direction you want your career to go.

In one company, we had a guy who, by trade, was an engineer.  Officially, on paper, his job was to go into customer facilities and troubleshoot issues they were having with our products.  By the time I got to the company, he had already been there for 20+ years.  And while he did do his engineering stuff, he also had acquired a bunch of other “unofficial” duties during his time there.  At one point, both internal employees and customers both agreed that we needed a better system for looking up product information.  So, he volunteered to help out with building the system himself in-house.  Also, as time went on and the company got more involved in collaboration tools and communication platforms, he also became our unofficial help desk for stuff like that.  Needed help with a Microsoft Teams channel?  Couldn’t figure out how to create a share point page??  He was the guy for all that.  And in doing that, he was able to build relationships with virtually everyone in the organization, even people that someone in his role wouldn’t normally come in contact with, because EVERYBODY was affected by the kind of work he did.  He’s probably the best example I have of someone who spent his entire career with one organization, and in doing so acquired such an incredible amount of tribal knowledge that he seemed to earn himself more and more job security every year.  And it lasted right up until retirement age!  He never really climbed the ladder, never had any formal authority, no direct reports, nothing like that:  but he had a steady, solid career being the resident expert and unofficial tech support in a bunch of different areas. 

Clearly, spending your career in one spot has some advantages.  But, there’s two sides to every coin, so let’s now look at the downside of staying with one organization too long.  For one, it’s going to result in a lack of exposure.  If you’re anything like most people, your entire professional network is going to be limited to the people that work in that one, particular organization.  Now if this is a mega, gargantuan company with thousands and thousands of employees, then you’ll still have exposure to lots of different kinds of people, the ability to move around and do different things, etc.  

But if you work for a smaller employer, you’ll be working with the same people day in/day out for your entire career.  You’ll only ever know THAT organization’s way of thinking and doing things.  And that’s fine if you want to spend your entire career there, and you think they’ll keep you around that long.  But what if something happens?  What if the company falls upon hard times, or gets acquired or sold, or for some other reason things don’t work out for you?  Are you going to be ready for the rough waters of the external job market?  Not all companies are exactly on the “cutting edge – I’ve seen it myself.  A lot of them, particularly smaller companies, have their own very specific way of doing things, which often involves processes that aren’t scalable or sustainable, software and tools that nobody else has ever heard of, and language/vocabulary that is going to sound like ancient Latin to anyone on the outside.  So imagine doing 25 years of that and then one day, record scratch:  the jig is up, and now you have to look for a new job.  Are you going to be marketable? Are the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired going to make you a competitive candidate?  Definitely something to think about. 

Another potential downside of staying in one place too long is that you could be limiting your potential for advancement.  Again: if you work for a mega company with global operations and a bunch of highly specialized functions, then it’s possible to have a fulling career without ever leaving the organization.  If you get bored with one thing, with the right strategy and support you can usually find a way to change functions and take on something new.  And the larger the company, the more robust and complex it will be, meaning that there will usually be more opportunity to advance and “climb the ladder”, if that’s what you’re after.  

But let’s pretend you’re working for a smaller organization.  Chances are the leadership team there is going to be made up of those “lifers” that we mentioned earlier:  they made it to where they are because of their knowledge and experience that they’ve racked up over however long they’ve been there.  That company is all they know – and the longer they’ve stayed, the more comfortable they’ve become, and their odds of leaving anytime soon get slimmer and slimmer.  And that’s going to limit you.  You can be the best and brightest at what you do, and you can have all the ambition in the world to advance and progress in your career.  But if the organization structure is limited and the opportunity isn’t there, you’ll wind up getting stuck right where you’re at.  And no, don’t go rooting for your boss to get hit by a bus or abducted by aliens thinking that you’re next in line. 

There was a line in the Shawshank Redemption that I’ve always referenced to make this point.  Towards the end of the movie, Morgan Freeman (who both stars in and narrates the film) is talking about his fellow inmate and good friend who finally managed to escape after being wrongfully imprisoned for years.  The line he says is something like “Some birds aren’t meant to be caged:  their feathers are just too bright”.  Obviously we can’t liken working a job to prison quite in that way, but the spirit of the quote is what always resonated with me.  It basically means that, whether you realize it or not, after a certain point your organization could be doing you more harm than good.  If you have talent and the drive for more, and your organization simply doesn’t provide you opportunity to grow and advance, well then it’s time to get out of that cage and go to an organization where you can “spread your wings”, figuratively speaking.  Because if you stay in the proverbial cage too long, you’re going to start stagnating and wasting away.  

And here’s another thing that happens when you stay with an organization for too long, particularly if you started there when you were young.  The more senior people around you, those lifers that have been there so long they’ve become pieces of furniture, they’ll always see you as “the kid”, or “the new guy/girl”.  They’ve already been around forever, they were able to advance and make it into the more senior roles.  And if it’s the kind of company where there’s a lot of inertia and not much turnover, you could very well get permanently looked at as a rookie, so to speak.  

I’ve worked places where this was the case:  I was in my mid-late 20s and all the management was my parents age, and by human nature people in authority that are way older than you wind up treating you as they would their kids.  They’ll let you play until the streetlights come on, but then they want you home. In other words, they’ll give you some leeway, but ultimately they’re the ones who are more experienced, and they’re the ones who have the final say when it comes to making decisions, and they’re the ones that the organization is going to take seriously.  No matter how much you age and mature, you are always your parents’ kid:  even if they’re 96 and you’re 70, they’re always going to look at you like a kid:  there’s always going to be some element of that in the relationship.  And if this is the kind of dynamic that’s playing out in your organization, it’s going to be next to impossible for your career to advance at that company.  

And even if you waited decades for those people to retire or age out, remember:  you were essentially seen as “the kid” up until now.  There’s no guarantee that you’re the one that’s going to get that now vacant leadership role just because you’ve been around and you know where the bodies are buried.  If the organization sees you as a perpetual subordinate, don’t be surprised at all if they recruit from the outside to fill that vacancy.  And then what?  You spent 10, 15, 20 years waiting around, only to have to report to a boss that knows nothing about the job or the company, while your career continues to go nowhere.  And how is that going to make you feel?  You see where I’m going with this?  Long story short, if you have career goals and ambitions and you just don’t see the tide turning at your organization anytime soon, my advice would be to get out while you can:  while you’re still ambitious and marketable and still have enough “corporate youth” left to go make a bigger splash somewhere else.  

We’ve covered lots of good stuff today, so let’s sum it all up and send you on your way with today’s……consigliere curtain call.  Staying in one job or company for long periods isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing:  it really all depends what you want from your career.  On the good side, it can make you an expert authority in your job.  As a result, it also gives you a lot of credibility throughout the organization, and over time this will make leadership very comfortable with you thanks to your good track record.  In many cases, the longer you stay, the more job security you build up because after a certain point you become very difficult to replace.  

Also, the relationships you build up with a long tenure in an organization are invaluable.  Who you know and the connections you have are CRUCIAL to getting things done in just about any role you’ll hold.  The  longer you’ve been around, the more expansive your network in that organization will be.  And combine that with all the knowledge and credibility you’ve built up, and you’ll eventually become a kingpin in that company’s operation.  

But, sticking around can also come at a cost.  We talked about the lack of exposure:  you only know that one company’s philosophy and way of doing things.  If the stuff you’ve done there isn’t up to market or industry standards, or isn’t sustainable or transferrable, then you could be at a serious disadvantage in the job market if for some reason things wind up not working out with that particular organization.   You could also be setting yourself up for limited advancement potential.  Maybe it’s a large, robust organization with tons of opportunity for talented people.  Or maybe it’s a smaller company with a much leaner operation.  If that’s the case, you could wind up getting very comfortable for way too long, and the opportunities for growth may never come.  Like I say in every episode, YOU are the boss of your career, so if you don’t see the tide turning in your favor anytime soon, you have to be able to recognize when you’ve hit a dead end and begin plotting your exit strategy.

And finally, if you spend significant time working with the same people, particularly if you started young, you run the risk of developing a permanent reputation of being “what you are”.  As the boss of your career,  YOU know what you want, and YOU know what you’re capable of.  Influential people throughout the organization may say things to the contrary, but drown out the noise.  Bottom line:  if you want more and you’re not getting it wherever you’re at, then you have to start considering other options.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you.  There are pros and cons to being a lifer with an organization.  Hopefully everything we’ve covered today helps you see both sides and gives you some perspective on what might be right for you.

Sadly folks, that’s all the time we have for today.  But have no fears, and shed no tears, because I’ll be back with a new episode very soon.  As they say in the industry:  no listeners, no show, so do me a favor, and stay loyal!  If you find value in my content, please leave me a nice review, tell all your friends, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and follow on whatever platform you use to get your podcasts.   Beyond the confines of your headphones, speakers, TV screen, or any other crazy contraption with the ability to stream audio, I also provide one-on-one career assistance, so visit my website at career-consigliere.net to learn more about me, book me for a private consult, join my email list, or explore some of the other career services I offer.  And to all of you out there in podcast land, remember this:  Who’s the boss in your career?  You, nobody else.