Stuck in a Dead-end Job

Getting stuck in a dead-end job is a reality especially for those who work in business organizations that have not been seeing adequate growth and where the organizational pyramid keeps getting fatter at the top every year.

Here are some of the ways in which one gets stuck in a dead-end job:

• One outgrows the current role but the next level job is simply not available. In this case the person will have to continue in the current role and if she is not able to move out will get stuck.
• One becomes a senior professional in a company after having worked for several years. In this case if the person has not kept abreast of the changes in the market in respect of skills she carries and has in some sense fallen behind will get stuck.
• One is assigned to some special initiatives by the management. This is a clear indication that the management doesn't care whether the person stays or not. The person will find that the accountability to achieve something keeps on increasing gradually but the authority to get things done stays unchanged and may at times gets diminished.

The biggest problem from those who are stuck is to the organization's culture. Such people would typically show following behaviors and characteristics:

• They carry big ego around and try to make others, especially those lower in the hierarchy, realize their weight
• They are too demanding as well as pugnacious and try to prove that they are always right and others are wrong.
• They are full of conceit, false sense of pride and superiority and carry a sadistic and condescending attitude.
• They are highly cynical and question everything for the sake of proving a point and to show their importance.